Second Beginnings
by Moosling
Summary: Ah! Its a Zutara! You have been warned. The story takes place a few years after Sozin's Comet. Zuko is trying to rebuild relations with the other nations. Aang is busy physically rebuilding what was destroyed by the Fire Nation. Rated M for l8r chapters
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter One

Second Beginnings

Zuko shifted in his seat, he swung his legs over the armrest and placed two fingers on his left temple. He sighed. He began massaging his temple as he surveyed his surroundings. He was sitting alone in his throne room, the line of fire in front of him was low and burned a menacing orange colour; the normally red floors and columns in the room where reflecting the orangey hue and consequently gave the entire room a sharp glare. His gaze fell onto the doors through which the Council for International Affairs had left only minutes ago. He leaned backwards to make himself more comfortable and began pondering the most recent meeting with his advisors.

They made a valid point alright, he thought to himself, even though reluctant trade relations had developed with the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, the credibility of the Fire Nation as a whole still left much to be desired and the image of the Fire Nation still depicted a warlike and destructive country that very few people wanted to visit. Obviously tourism was at an all time low and the economy would begin to suffer for it. Naturally the Fire Nation has wealth to spend now, thanks to the war that his ancestors started, but wealth does not last forever and it was now on his shoulders to find a solution to these problems.

Zuko sighed once more and sat upright before rising from his chair. He needed a change of scenery. Yes; perhaps some fresh air would inspire him somewhat. He exited the room through a small door behind him, hidden from view by a smooth curtain.

-oOo-

Outside Zuko felt as unmotivated as he had inside. Still he was here now. He walked unceremoniously down the garden path and stopped at the familiar tree where he and his mother used to sit when he was a young boy. He watched the turtleducks swimming in the pond. They looked like they didn't have a care in the world. Lucky turtleducks.

A soft breeze caressed his face as he stood next to the pond unmoving.

He needed to find a way to change people's perceptions of the Fire Nation. He needed something to make the Fire Nation seem a less unsympathetic place and a more, well… pleasant place. Of course the random rebellions in the most northerly parts of the country didn't help much. Aargh! Sometimes being the Fire Lord was really not all that it promised to be. Maybe if he… "Fire Lord sir?"

A voice broke Zuko's concentration. Zuko turned to see a servant standing a respectful distance from him. The servant bowed low and then straightened himself keeping his head down. The servant was dressed in the usual black and red uniform that was required of palace staff, and his hair was cut short as was accustomed with non-royal residents of the palace.

"What?" Zuko shot across abruptly. The servant looked up and seemed startled and more than a little uncertain. Zuko, hearing the harshness of his tone, beckoned the servant come forward with a wave of his hand. The servant obligingly stepped forward.

"Y-your Highness, my apologies, I sought you in your throne room but you where not there so I thought I might find you here." Zuko nodded. The servant continued "You see, I was sent by the royal planner to ask if His highness might be wanting anything special to be done for his birthday this year? What should I tell him?" The servant looked at him hesitantly before bowing his head once again to wait for the Fire Lord's answer.

Zuko looked back at the turtleducks; ah yes his twenty-fourth birthday. Did they really have to make such a fuss of it every year? Yes it meant the nation getting a day off, but he really did not look forward to another one of his uncle's teasing conversations on him getting older and the incessant, unsubtle hints about grandchildren. The old man really should be more careful about such talk; people might start to expect things.

"Just tell them the usual will do" the servant bowed and left the vicinity without another word.

Zuko grimaced and sat down. That's one more thing to worry about, he thought cynically. He leaned back and allowed the thick tree to support him.

Now he can add "birthday date" to his list of other things to worry about. Things on "Zuko's Worry List" include: Fire Nation credibility and image, trading relations in the Earth Kingdom and now having to ask a girl to be his date for his birthday celebration. Stupid Fire Nation customs.

Zuko closed his eyes. He felt the breeze drop slightly. He sniffed the air and detected faint scents of jasmine. He savoured the sweet smell as he let his thoughts dwell on the issue of the Earth Kingdom as their trading partners. It started off simply enough, a few years after he had come into power, he sent out offers to the other nations to begin building trade relations. The Water Tribes had politely refused the offer, evidently they where hesitant to make more contact with the Fire Nation than what was strictly necessary. The Earth King initially had also declined the Fire Nation's offer. However, after much persuasion, a small trade agreement had began to flourish between the two nations; seemingly the Earth King was eager to gain access the Fire Nation's superior technological skills.

Zuko placed his hands behind his head, the trade agreement was not an ultimate solution to their problems but it was certainly a start, and at least they where now building some sort of affiliation with the Earth Nation.

Now there lay the problem of the Water Nation's non-cooperation. He understood that they would feel very averse to having anything to do with the Fire Nation, but he was determined that they get onto friendlier terms with them sooner or later. Perhaps if he followed his advisors suggestions and sent an ambassador to the Northern and Southern tribes, they would eventually recognise that the Fire Nation was no longer a threat and also commence trading with his country.

That would take time though.

No.

What he needed was something more reliable. Or rather someone.

He needed someone to come over here, someone who had the Water Tribes' trust, someone who was representative of them, and someone who would cooperate with him and his good intentions. Yes! Someone who, once there, would send out the message that "hey its great to be here!"

The first such person that came to mind was the avatar. Zuko considered this option. Of course! Who wouldn't believe the avatar? He and his endless optimism would certainly send out the right message to the Water Tribes. He was without doubt a good all-rounder choice. Not only was he a good choice, but also incredibly convenient; wasn't the avatar said to be just near the boarders of the Fire Nation?

But wait; wasn't he targeting the Water Tribes more specifically? Hmmm… An idea crept into his head.

He swiftly stood up with a determined look on his face. He quickly strode back up the garden path and through a large archway. He paced forward for a few meters and then made a sharp turn to his right. He was now facing two large wooden doors. The doors where immaculately polished and decorated with elaborate carvings of trees that where intricately entwined in scrolls and feathered quills.

Zuko cleared his throat before entering.

The old scribe sitting at the desk at the end of the room stood up immediately and bowed low in the manner that the servant had done when he saw the Fire Lord. "Your Highness" he said as he straightened up. "Is there anything that I can do for you today?"

Zuko looked fleetingly around the room. Instead of the usual red walls, the room was painted white. Two great windows on his right kept the room light and well aired. A few bookcases stood in the room, but precious few books filled its shelves, as many scrolls lay scattered on the remaining shelf space. There where tables all along walls, but these too where decorated with papers and writing tools. The only clear space was that of the scribe's desk.

"Yes" Zuko announced confidently, "I want to send a message to the Southern Water Tribe."

-oOo-

Aang stood with his back against a stonewall. The sun was high and there was very little shade to come by. A group of teenage girls walked past, as soon as they saw him they audibly started whispering and glancing over at him. Aang flashed them a smile and winked in their direction. The girls burst out into a fit of giggles and sped off. He grinned at himself.

"Well aren't you turning into a regular little flirt there Twinkle Toes" came a voice not too far off from him.

Aang turned around to face the owner of the voice. He laughed.

"Says she who is dating two different guys at the same time; not to mention how she then leaves them both without a word of notice to tour the world!"

Toph scoffed, "I was only having a little fun, what's a girl to do? Besides, you know it keeps my parents from breathing down my neck when they see me with possible suitors."

Aang smiled placidly. He knew that Toph did indeed mean no harm, but she still was as blunt as a doorknob when she wanted to be. Often this was the reason for the friction between her and her parents.

He appraised her for a moment; at age nineteen Toph had grown into a tall slender young woman. Wisps of her mid-length hair fell unevenly in her face; the delicate quality of which belied her rough nature.

Aang sniggered, her attractive features had allured many a man, and many a man had been sent off with the proverbial tail between his legs after a lashing from her sharp tongue.

"What?" Toph asked with a hint of irritation evident.

"Oh nothing" Aang replied in an entertained voice. His appearance had changed a lot too. He was taller, his voice was deeper, and his now more defined jaw line was getting him substantially more female attention. He didn't mind. His shaven head bearing an arrow tattoo remained unchanged.

"Come on it's going to take us a little while longer before we get to the next village and at this rate we'll only get there at nightfall."

"Well excuse me for being thirsty" muttered Toph. She turned and started walking. Aang followed her.

They had made an impromptu landing at a small farming community after Toph had started complaining about the lack of water in their supplies. The villagers where plainly very keen to assist the avatar and he had received much attention from them before he had snuck away to out of sigth to wait for Toph.

She led the way around the wall to a large bison that was waiting patiently for the two of them to return. A small lemur could just be seen snoozing on the head of the massive beast. Toph and Aang wordlessly climbed into their prospective seats. Momo woke just enough to settle himself around Aang's shoulders before, and without delay, falling asleep again.

"Yip-yip!" cried Aang.

The bison let out a soft bellow before rising into the air.

Aang gazed lethargically at the land around them as they steadily climbed into the air. The lands below where various shades of green as far as the eye could see. There were no trees about, or else they would've landed under them for some shade. The little village that they had visited was constantly growing smaller as they ascended.

-oOo-

The sun shone with inviting warmth as they flew towards their destination. Aang suppressed a yawn. Man did he feel lazy. He glanced backwards to see what Toph was up to. She was propped up against the inner side of Appa's saddle and her arms were effortlessly spread out to support her shoulders. Her head was tilted backwards, her eyes closed, and (Aang imagined) soft snores could just be heard over the whistling of the wind. He shook his head vigorously to ward off any feelings of sleepiness that were creeping up on him.

Aang thought about his new travelling companion. Toph had eventually returned back to her parents after the battle to defeat the previous Fire Lord. When she returned she was greeted with a mixture of relief and anger from her parents. But after a while they relaxed and acknowledged Toph's needs for independence. She had lived with them happily for some time since, but now recently they seemed to be very interested in playing matchmaker for their daughter. That's probably why she had decided to "take a break from them" as she called it, and travel with him. For how long she would be with him he was unsure. He shook Appa's reigns.

"Come on buddy, just a little while longer." Appa groaned in reply to Aang, evidently he also wished to take advantage of the afternoon's lazy atmosphere. He increased his flying speed slightly and the group sped onwards.

-oOo-

Mai was too angry to be bored today. Zuko had gone from being mildly pleasant with her, to simply tolerating her, to completely ignoring her altogether! She cursed herself under her breath.

After being freed from the prison that Azula had sent her to, Zuko had invited her family to move back to the Fire Nation. They gladly accepted and soon moved into a mansion located near the palace grounds. Due to the convenience of living so close to the Fire Lord, they visited with each other frequently and eventually started dating. The relationship lasted almost two years. Unfortunately, she got bored and began to find a young untamed nobleman much more interesting. She left Zuko for him. The relationship went sour a year ago and now she wanted Zuko back.

She was so stupid to leave him. Really; the freaking Fire Lord for a nobleman! She felt a right idiot.

She paced her room agitatedly as she thought about her recent failed attempt to recapture the Fire Lord's affections.

It was earlier that afternoon that she had entered the palace and told the guards that she was here to see the Fire Lord. Not being permitted to refuse a noblewoman the right to enter the royal palace, the guards stood aside allowing her carriage through the enormous wrought-iron gates onto the royal grounds. Mai had wasted no time and she proceeded to track down Zuko.

After hunting through the palace, she had located Zuko in the gardens where she used to play with Azula in her younger days. He seemed to hang around there a lot. She didn't know why; it was so boring there.

She noticed that he seemed to be in a good mood, excellent! She approached him and bowed down to him. She then stood up and smiled sweetly at him.

"Good afternoon Fire Lord" she cooed coyly. Zuko had looked at her with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

"Since when have you started referring to me by my title?" he asked in a questioning tone.

"Oh I just thought it would be nice."

"I see… Is there something you are looking for?"

"I'm looking at him silly" she let out an artificial giggle.

Zuko didn't seem to notice this. "Oh…"

He didn't know what to say.

"What have you been up to today" she batted her eyelashes in what she hope was a charming manner. Goodness did she sound as nauseating as she felt? It was beyond her why men fell for this type of thing.

Zuko looked at her incredulously before turning his head towards the pond. "I have been conversing with my advisors today. I think I might have found a way to build on our relationship with the Water Tribes."

"Oh" Mai replied flatly. She had to make it apparent that she wasn't there to talk about politics. Then in a sugary voice she said "I've been thinking about you."

She looked towards Zuko for a reaction, his face was turned away from her but his body language remained unchanged so she continued.

"I was thinking that we never get to see each other anymore, so I was hoping that perhaps tonight you might be available to join me for dinner." She looked at the ground trying to appear shy.

"Mother and Father will be away visiting relatives, so it will be just you and me."

She was going in for the kill.

She looked up and said huskily "You and I will be _alone._" She emphasized the last word, wanting to make sure that he knew exactly what she was getting at. She waited for a reply, but none came.

"Zuko?"

Zuko turned his head to face her. "Sorry, did you say something?"

Mai felt like someone had just slapped her.

Struggling not to grit her teeth and to keep her tone sweet, she started again. "I was saying that perhaps you would like to join me for dinner tonight and that…" Zuko cut her off.

"Actually no, sorry, I have a another meeting with my counsellors. Good day to you Mai" His tone was light.

He and turned and casually walked to the archway on the far right. He had not heard anything that she had said to him!

Mai watched him go, purely dumbstruck.

Now that she had made it back home she felt so embarrassed. Embarrassed and highly pissed off.

Mai stopped pacing and glanced sharply around her room. It was very plain and bare save her bed and a large armoire that stood in the far corner of her room. A door stood next to the armoire that led to a private washroom. Her room opened up onto a balcony that overlooked the gardens of the mansion. Black silk was hung ornately around the balcony doorway and windows, as well as on her bed in the form of linens.

She breathed in deeply. Patience, there will be another opportunity. She slowly walked over to her balcony. The Fire Lord would be having a birthday soon. He would have to choose someone to be his partner for the evening. All she had to do was make sure that she was in the right place at the right time.

She let a small snigger escape her lips. Actually who else could he possibly ask?

Mai smirked. She turned and went back inside.

-oOo-

"Toph wake up, we're here." Toph snapped her head up and shook it groggily, the air around her felt cool, it must be evening.

She climbed off the bison. She paused as her feet touched the ground. She felt that they where just outside a village again, this one was larger than the last. She could feel the villagers moving around like ants.

"So this is the place that we're helping rebuild?" she enquired.

"Yup."

Toph grinned. It had been only too easy to convince Aang to allow her to come along with him.

He had taken to flitting from village to village; helping to rebuild what the Fire Nation had destroyed. Perhaps he was still feeling guilty for not accepting his avatar duties when he was supposed to a hundred years ago. All of this could maybe have been avoided.

None the less; he was assisting those in need and it soon became very apparent to him that having a capable earthbender such as herself around was certainly going to be helpful.

Toph's ears suddenly picked up - footsteps. Someone had most likely seen them, and was running to tell the rest of the village that the avatar was here.

Toph signed. Joining the avatar also had its downsides she decided.

-oOo-

Ready, set, review!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Two

To Venture Forth

The scroll had arrived that morning. Gold and red lines danced across the cylindrical container in a decorative manner and the elegant black writing on the front indicated that it was for his sister. He didn't even need to look at the royal crimson emblem to know whom it came from.

Sokka took the safety container holding the scroll and stared at it thoughtfully. Obviously it was wrong to open other people's mail; but this one was so very official and interesting looking. He couldn't sneak a peak at it, the seal would then be broken and Katara would know. Besides, he had learnt the hard way not to open his sister's mail. He remembered it all too vividly - the one fateful day when he had callously torn open a message sent to her from Aang.

There was nothing of interest in the message, just some well wishes and updates on his comings and goings; but Katara had exploded when she saw him reading it. She shrieked at him that what she got in the mail was none of his business… and that checking for letter bombs was not a valid excuse. He tried to make a run for it, but in her fury she violently waterbended a small frozen holding cell around him… in the middle of town. It had taken him all afternoon to chisel himself out. The younger kids still wouldn't let him live it down.

He appraised the secured scroll. The wind howled around him, blowing small fragments of white past his face. There was nothing to it, he would have to find his sister asap and get her to open it now! The young man turned and raced towards the shining city, settled amongst the gleaming ice.

-oOo-

Katara marvelled at how quickly the Southern Water Tribe had managed to bounce back from the brink of near devastation. It really was incredible to think that just a few years ago, she had returned and found not a small, dilapidated village that was struggling to make ends meet; but a beautiful city that was vast and prosperous! She could not take her eyes off her transformed home the day that she returned.

The Northern Tribe waterbenders had worked tirelessly at manipulating water and ice to create the splendid structures that she gazed at. Glittering towers, not unlike those of the Northern Water Tribe, where visible from a great distance, they where the first things that she and her brother had spotted when approaching the city. Everything in the City was smooth and white; from the tallest peak of the tallest tower to the very ground that they walked on. Houses dotted the vast structures and rivers ran through the city, making travelling around a speedy affair.

She remembered her return back home. Upon arrival she and her brother had received a hero's welcome. Everyone wanted to speak with them, hear their news and have them re-tell their prospective stories on how they helped to end the war of the Fire Nation. They never seemed to tire of hearing the stories and it was well after dark before she had made it to her new bedroom. The next day her father, the reinstated chief, held a banquet in their honour to welcome them home.

She had been walking restlessly down the corridors of her father's home. The house had changed since she had returned.

It had become a mansion.

It was not strictly massive in size, but it definitely was more luxurious and decorated. Throughout the mansion, delicate wall carvings of seals, fish and other marine animals swam in delightful patterns. The windows and doors where framed with swirling frozen waves and glimmered with a dazzling white when the sun shone through them. The attention to detail that was displayed in the house had impressed her from the very first day and she never tired from admiring it. It was good to be home, but not in the way that she had hoped.

She closed her eyes, something must be wrong with her. She didn't feel herself. Why was it that even though she had everything she had ever needed, she still just couldn't be at ease? Maybe she should start meditating like Aang did to help her clam down. She decided to make her way back to her room to give it a try.

Then Sokka made his grand entrance, sprinting down the passage and screaming her name.

Katara turned around wildly.

At first she thought he was in some form of trouble again. If she remembered correctly the last time involved him being chased by a herd of sharkturtles. Goodness did they actually make it all the way into the city this time? He really should learn to be more careful! Why can't he just act his age and leave the carnivorous sea creatures alone? After all he was next in line to become the leader of the tribe and it would certainly help if he lived to see that day!

She raised her arms and positioned herself in an attacking stance. Luckily there was no need. Sokka had screeched to a halt in front of her and shoved a scroll-container into her hands.

"Read!" was all he could gasp out.

-oOo-

Katara stared at the scroll in her hands. She had removed it from the pretty container and surveyed the weighted, rolled paper. The seal on the paper was still intact. She was seated at a large table with Gran Gran and a very out of breath Sokka. Why was Sokka acting so weird these days? Kanna looked deep it thought. Sokka, despite his exhausted state, was staring at her scroll greedily.

"Well?" he started.

"Well what?"

"Open it already!"

Katara gave her brother a startled look before breaking off the seal and unrolling the piece of paper.

There were a few minutes of silence as Katara read the message.

"Well?" Sokka started again? "What does it say? Is it from Zuko?"

"Yes its from Zuko." Katara replied dryly. She didn't continue.

"What does he say?" He wasn't trying very hard to conceal the enthusiasm in his voice.

Katara bit her lip before hesitantly saying "he wants me to go over to the Fire Nation."

"YES!" Sokka almost leaped onto the table. Realising this, he quickly changed tactics and in a much more refined voice said "I mean, oh how lovely, are you going to go then?"

Plainly he only succeeded in fooling himself with this guise.

Both women looked at him. Kanna smiled subtly. Katara looked annoyed. She decided that to ignore him would be best and continued relaying the message.

"He says he wants me to help him build a waterbending school there. He says its so that he can accommodate any waterbenders living in the Fire Nation; as well as encourage more tourism from the Water Nations." She paused, allowing the information to soak in, then continued.

"Basically it's an attempt to rebuild relations with the Water Tribes. He recons that if he shows the Water Nations that the Fire Nation is more accepting of them, then they will be more accepting of the Fire Nation… and more prone to forgiveness."

There was a moment of thoughtful silence. Katara looked the message up and down once more.

"I understand what he's getting at, and it does sound like a nice opportunity to see him again, but I'm not convinced that I'm the person for the job, I mean, why me?"

"Because you are a celebrity when it comes to Water Tribes" Sokka loudly interjected. "You're a little like me you know, people recognise you and idolise you as their hero!" Sokka looked very pleased with himself.

Katara shot him a fierce glare. Sokka took this as his queue to shut up.

Katara leaned back and stared at the glossy blue ceiling thoughtfully. She hadn't travelled much since she got back, perhaps it would be a good thing to experience a change of scenery. But what about everyone here? Her family was finally together, and what about all the rebuilding that was still going on? She couldn't just drop all that and go.

Katara put her head in her hands. What was she going to do? She felt like she was being split in two: part of her felt a strong devotion to staying with her tribe, the other part of her didn't know what it wanted.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Kanna repeated Sokka's question. "Well my dear, are you going to go?"

Katara looked up feeling slightly abashed by her Gran Gran's question. Automatically her mind reeled to find any and all reasons for her not to leave her home.

"I don't know… I mean well, I only just got the message and I don't think I can, there is still so much work to do here. Besides its here where I belong." She felt confident about her answer, but her reply came out shakily.

Kanna looked kindly at her granddaughter. She spoke gently.

"He is a friend of yours is he not?"

"Yes, of course he is" came quiet reply.

"And he is asking for your help?"

Katara nodded.

More silence followed as Katara stared back at the scroll for a moment, then she gradually looked back at Kanna.

"Gran Gran, are you suggesting that I go?"

"I am suggesting it, yes."

Katara looked at her with a slightly hurt expression.

Kanna smiled sympathetically and reached over to hold Katara's hand.

"I'm not telling you to leave us you know."

Katara said nothing, so she continued.

"But I have noticed that you are not settled here." She gave Katara a knowing look.

"Katara, I know that you are not as happy here as you where when you returned five years ago. Have you not noticed this? Your brother certainly has."

Sokka shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Well, I have been feeling… different come to think of it." Katara admitted.

"Its because you are not ready to settle yet darling, you are restless! You are young and you are meant to be out enjoying life! That's why I do think that you should go. It'll clear your head a bit."

Katara still looked a bit unconvinced.

"Don't worry about us, you know we'll be fine." Kanna assured her.

"I don't know how long I'll be gone for."

"I know, but we'll be here when you get back. Its not like there's a war going on or anything."

This brought a nervous smile to Katara's face.

"Alright, if you think it's a good idea Gran Gran… I'll go."

"Good" Kanna smiled pleasantly "and take your brother with you, he is restless and needs to get out a bit more."

Katara giggled and looked at Sokka. He was starting to resemble their father more and more.

Sokka looked indignant, "why would you say something like that?"

Kanna shrugged "Heh, some grandchildren are easier to read than others."

With that Sokka stood up and slammed his hand on the table. In an incredibly optimistic voice he instructed, "Well then no time to delay sis, send Zuko a message and lets be on our way!"

-oOo-

The journey had been surprisingly long, perhaps it was because he wasn't used to travelling great distances anymore.

"You're sure about this Sokka?"

"Positive, what help could I be in teaching waterbending? What's more, Aang probably needs the company."

"Ok, it certainly seems that you've made up your mind."

The siblings had departed from Water Tribe. After many a long and tearful good-bye, they had travelled across the sea and had made a detoured stop at a small Fire Nation harbour. During their journey, Sokka had decided to try and meet up with Aang first before making his way to the palace. He persuaded the captain of the vessel to stop near where, according to his letters, Aang would most likely be. The captain, albeit begrudgingly, had obliged.

Sokka embraced his sister.

"Have fun ok."

"You too, say hi to Aang for me."

Sokka turned and walked down the ramp onto more solid ground.

He turned and waved as the ship carrying his sister pulled out of the harbour.

"Bye sis, I'll be seeing you!"

He watched until the ship was a mere speck on the horizon.

-oOo-

The Fire Lord watched as the carriage drew up to his palace. The though of seeing his friend again was making him feel oddly nervous. He had last seen Katara just over five years ago when she and her brother had made a quick visit to see him on their way back to their home at the South Pole.

After he had been crowned, Katara, and Aang had occasionally paid him a visit during their travels. He had enjoyed their visits and without realising it, a solid friendship had formed among them. It had saddened him slightly when Katara announced that she was on her way back home.

He straightened his already exceptionally vertical posture. He could not help but feel that he had to make a good impression. He wondered if she had changed at all. He wondered if she would notice how much he had changed - he had certainly gained some height since she had last seen him. He had also bulked out slightly and his shoulders had definitely widened by a few inches. She would undeniably notice this about him.

He felt strangely comforted in thinking this thought.

The carriage stopped in front of the numerous stairs that lead up to the palace doors. He started walking down them so as to meet Katara when she exited the carriage.

As he neared the carriage a servant opened the door. Zuko almost tripped himself with his own feet.

A striking young woman had climbed out of the carriage. She had long dark brown hair that was tied in a braid; two loops hung attractively around her face. She wore a pretty dark blue dress that hugged her tiny waist and hung gracefully down to her ankles. Her sapphire eyes shone at him as she smiled.

He could not believe his eyes; this exotic beauty was Katara!

"Hey there stranger!" She raced up the last few stairs and hugged Zuko excitedly.

Zuko was caught by surprise as she wrapped her arms around his waist; did Fire Lords hug their friends when they saw them again for the first time in years? He was quite sure that they did not, but what the heck! He wrapped his arms around Katara and hugged her back.

He noticed that he was at least a head taller than her; either he had grown a lot more than he had thought, or she hadn't grown very much taller since he last saw her.

He released his grip and took a step backwards, placing his hands behind his back as he did so.

"Katara, it is good to see you again."

She giggled at his sudden formalness.

"It is good to see you too Fire Lord." She gave a small curtsy.

Zuko cleared his throat. He suddenly felt as though he didn't know what to say to her. No, he really didn't know what to say to her! What was he supposed to say next?

A servant came to his rescue.

"Shall I take your luggage to your room miss?"

Katara turned to face the servant, Zuko's blank expression going (thankfully!) unnoticed.

"Yes, please would you?"

The servant bowed low and walked over to the back of the carriage.

Her room, yes of course!

"Shall I escort you to your quarters?" he asked holding out his arm in a gentlemanly fashion.

"Yes please." She said looking positively delighted as she took his arm.

Zuko turned and led Katara up the stairs.

As they walked Zuko racked his brains trying to initiate a decent conversation with her that lasted more than just three sentences.

Her family was fine. The restoration of her home was going well. The ruling of the Fire Nation was slightly challenging but generally ok…

Now what?

"How have things been with you and the avatar?" he heard himself ask. He mentally kicked himself as he said it, why did he ask her that?

Katara looked at him curiously.

"Fine actually. It wasn't as messy a break-up as people would like to think."

She looked forward as they continued to walk. "Sure it was great going out with him when I was younger, but I guess that as we got older we just realized that we were really only very good friends. We still write to each other you know."

Zuko nodded, he still wished that he hadn't asked. He managed a small smile.

"I'm glad to hear that."

"You are?"

He was?

"Er… yes, what kind of friend would I be if I wasn't?"

Nice save, he really should start thinking before speaking.

Katara seemed satisfied with this answer.

The two of them casually strode on through the palace.

Katara looked with awe at the immensity of Zuko's palace.

All the rooms that they passed, she noticed, had at least two large arch-shaped windows in them that let vast quantities of sunlight pass through. The effect was such that each room, in its entirety, looked as if it were made of gold. Katara also quickly noticed the how the colours red and black lavishly decorated the hallways; making her feel slightly out of place in her blue outfit.

An idea for a topic of conversation struck Zuko.

"We've told the few waterbenders that are living here about your arrival, they are very keen to meet you."

"They are?"

"Of course, why would they not be?"

Katara shrugged. "I didn't know there was even a market for waterbending teaching here. To be honest I was very surprised to get your message."

Zuko grinned. "Yes it does seem very unlikely that there would be any waterbenders anywhere near here, however it seems that there are a few individuals located nearby who have recently moved from the Earth Nation. I'm not sure of their motives, maybe it was just getting too crowded."

Katara sniggered.

"So what exactly am I to teach them?"

"Anything you want, you can educated them on whatever you please."

"Alright then, I can live with that."

Another thought occurred to Zuko, "wasn't your brother supposed to be with you?"

"Yes he was, but he made other plans, he intends to meet up with me when he's done."

Zuko grinned mischievously, "is that what you call chasing after a girl these days – 'he made other plans?'" He used his free arm to emphasized imaginary quotation marks as he said the last bit.

"No, actually he's decided to go chasing after Aang!" she replied haughtily.

Zuko tried hard to suppress the urge to laugh; he failed miserably. He flew into a fit of laughter and hastily looked away from Katara, trying to feign a series of coughs.

Katara realised what she had just said and suppressed a giggle. "Oh you know what I mean."

They looked at each other, neither could keep a straight face, they burst out into a fit of laughter.

Once the noise of their sniggering had subdued Katara turned the conversation to Zuko, "so what's happening in your love life then?" She looked at him mischievously in turn.

He hastily replied "Oh it's been a while. Being the Fire Lord and all keeps one busy and that makes it difficult to go out and play the field." Zuko smiled reminiscently. "Ah, here we are."

He turned and led her through an archway to a large outdoor area. Katara looked around, they where in a courtyard. Columns supporting balconies surrounded the quad. A happy little fountain was located in the middle of the quad and quaint little flowers dotted the grassy floor beneath their feet. There were smaller doorways leading in and out of the quad on the ground floor.

Zuko walked her to the door located nearest to them. He pushed it open and motioned for her to enter. Katara walked in and Zuko followed.

Upon entering, Katara let out small gasp of glee. Instead of the usual red toned colours that represented the rest of the palace, this room was daintily decorated in blue. From her bedding to the shimmery curtains that hung in her windows. She smiled broadly.

Zuko looked chuffed. "Everything that you need should be here. The whole courtyard is at your disposal… I thought you might like your privacy."

"It's lovely, thank you!"

"Come, there is more." He held out his arm again. He escorted her out the room and to the further most doors at the end of the courtyard. The pushed the large, heavy-looking double doors open. They swung outwards with a surprising ease.

The sun shone fiercely in Katara's eyes as they stepped out of the quad and it took a few seconds for her to adjust to its radiance. They walked to the middle of a large grassy patch. Katara glanced behind them and saw an enormous, sweet smelling tree with bright yellow blossoms near the doors that they had just exited through. A bench and table set was located in the shade of the tree. She looked ahead of her; a second and much more magnificent fountain greeted her vision.

This one was energetically shooting water high into the air. The water landed in an equally magnificent clear pool surrounding the fountain. Further on, a high wall marked the end of the palace's property, along which a fertile series of colourful plants grew. They were clearly in a large garden of sorts.

"Well want do you think?"

"It's a garden."

"Well observed."

"It's exquisite."

"I'm glad you like it." Zuko looked around at the familiar surroundings. "As I'm sure you know, we don't actually have any waterbending training facilities around here for obvious reasons; but I was wondering if this would be adequate for you to use?" He motioned at the area around them.

"Hmmm…" Katara unlinked her arm from Zuko and walked towards the water's edge. The water was clear and felt wonderfully cool to the touch. Thinking back she had actually noticed this pool before on one of her pervious visits, but she couldn't remember the fountain. Maybe it was new. She turned and surveyed the potential training area. The ground was firm and level, perfect for beginner benders.

"This will work just fine."

-oOo-

Mai slowly glided through the palace. Zuko wasn't in his usual hauntings and she had just about given up the hunt for him. Maybe she should go home, it was such boring work tracking down the Fire Lord, especially seeing as she was having no success in it.

As she made her way past a balcony, she heard the faint sounds of his laughter. She stopped abruptly. She turned and walked onto the balcony expressionlessly.

In the distance she could see Zuko. He was standing near a large fountain in. He was laughing at something. Well at least now she knew where he was.

She was about to turn and go over to him when she noticed a second person. She stopped and stared. Who was it? She looked slightly familiar but at this distance it was difficult to know for certain.

Wait hang on… She?

Zuko was with another girl… laughing! Shit!

She turned and made, with much haste, for the nearest exit into the gardens.

As she reached the doors, she skidded to a halt. She straightened herself out and plastered a synthetic smile on her face. She snarled at the nearby servant to open the doors and strode out to greet the two people splashing each other with water.

She walked right up to them before Zuko even turned to acknowledge her presence. How infuriating!

"Hello Zuko, how are you?"

"Mai?"

Ignoring the fact that Zuko was looking at her with utter confusion, she turned to see who the other woman was.

She had brilliant blue eyes, and a slender figure. She had a slightly darker complexion than normal people that she usually came across. Fine features graced her surprisingly familiar face. In short, she was beautiful… Fuck!

"Who is your charming guest Zuko?" She smiled sweetly at Katara.

"You mean you don't recognise her?" His confusion quickly turned to amusement. "Mai this is Katara, she used to travel around with the avatar. She's here to teach waterbending to some new students." He turned to Katara, "Katara this is Mai, I'm sure you remember her." He grinned at Katara as he said this. Katara mirrored his amused expression.

The waterbender! Yes now she recognised her... And she was here to teach _waterbending_? Mai looked around and noticed that the doors leading to the Northern courtyard where standing wide open. It seemed like the waterbender would be staying a while then. Mai had to do damage control now!

"Katara! Welcome to the Fire Nation!" She pushed past Zuko and pulled a now very surprised looking Katara into a fierce hug.

Zuko's expression rapidly changed from amusement to bewilderment.

"Do tell me how things have been with you!" She released Katara. "Come let me help you unpack and you can tell me about your journey here."

Katara gave Zuko a puzzled look.

"With your permission of course Zuko, I'd like to help this poor girl get settled here." Mai wrapped an arm around Katara's shoulder as if they had been close friends for years. Katara's puzzled face also turned to a look of bewilderment.

Zuko looked from Mai to Katara. He frowned slightly.

"Actually Mai I was just busy showing Katara around myself."

"Oh don't worry about it" Mai waved her hand in a dismissive manner, "I'll see to it that she becomes familiar with her surroundings and you can get back to doing whatever it is that you need to do."

Zuko looked irritated.

Katara spoke up, "Zuko its fine, Mai can show me around and help me get settled in."

Zuko looked at Katara with a raised eyebrow, "You sure?"

"Yes, really. I'll catch up with you later. I'm sure you have plenty to do today, I really don't want to take up too much of your time." She flashed him a dazzling smile "Why don't you come by later, we can catch up more then."

Zuko thought about this, he did have some admin to do, and he was hoping to speak to his advisors again today about the Waterbending School now that it was underway.

He nodded. Maybe it would be best if Katara had some more female company to help her get sorted, even if it was Mai who would be helping her.

"Wonderful! Well please excuse us then." Mai took Katara by the arm and led her back to her room.

Zuko just watched the two women walk off still unable to shake his feelings of bewilderment. What just happened?

Katara simply followed Mai's lead. Was this normal?

Mai alone remained unfazed by her actions.

She smiled darkly to herself as she walked Katara back past the bulk yellow tree. It is as they say: keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.

-oOo-

"You know, you really would think that after nearly a decade of peace, people would've started rebuilding on their own."

"Well its not like you're being much of a help."

"Hey! I'm here to give you guys the moral support that you need!"

Sokka had joined up with Toph and Aang two days ago. They had been fairly surprised to see him, but welcomed him into their group wholeheartedly, eager to have more people to help their cause. Plainly he was not being of much assistance though.

"Look why don't you go find Aang, maybe you can be of some use to him."

"Alright, alright already. I can take a hint."

Sokka got up from the pile of rubble that he had been sitting on and left Toph to finish earthbending broken houses back into shape. He sauntered off into town. It was midday and there were many people around going about their business. As he went he watched the villagers walking between the numerous stalls buying, selling, bartering and negotiating prices. He thought about how quickly it had taken him to find Aang.

Sure he had been dropped off at a Fire Nation harbour, but luckily the first village that he had visited had excitedly told him of how a flying bison carrying the avatar had flown over their town and had landed in the next village just outside the Fire Nation borders. He hitched a ride with some other travellers on ostrichhorses. A couple of days later he managed to reach the village where Aang was. After that it was pretty easy, he simply had to look for the most popular guy in town and there was Aang! Turns out, Toph was travelling with him too.

Sokka sighed. He walked further down the street and noticed a small inn on the corner. He strutted in and ordered the first beverage that came to mind. He sat down started sipping his tea at a lazy pace. He and Toph had been talking about Aang.

They both noticed that that Aang seemed tired; perhaps he needed a break. He had been working endlessly for a whole year now to help rebuild villages and cities. He was stuck in a rut; he needed to do something different for a while, but what? And how could they convince him?

Sokka looked across the room at the notice board on the wall. Something there caught his eye, he was sure that hadn't been there just now. He stood up and walked over to inspect it more closely. It was a wanted poster for a lost _gold-toothed panada_!?

Sokka contemplated the poster for a minute. This was perfect! He grabbed the poster and raced out of the inn, leaving his tea standing.

He sprinted back to where he had left Toph.

"Hey Toph!"

"What is it this time?" She didn't turn to face him, but carried on with her earthbending.

"Look, er, listen to what I found!"

He read out loud the details of the missing animal.

"It says that the panda was last seen way up north, and that the owner, Mr Higgins, is very worried about its well-being."

"It sounds like a good plan, but do you really think he'll go for it?" Toph crossed her arms and leaned against the now very complete house.

"Well its certainly going to take someone very capable to do this. I mean who else, apart from the avatar, would be able to travel that far on such a short notice and then be able to bring the panda back?"

"Hmm, you do have a point there."

"Come on. Aang surely will go for this. Its in his nature to want to help."

"Ya, you can say that again."

The two determinedly strode off to find Aang.

Once located, they put in their best efforts to sway him.

"Come on twinkle toes, it's a poor, lost, defenceless animal." Toph urged him. How could he be resisting this logic?

"No Toph, I've still got way too much to do around here." She angrily crossed her arms and started sulking.

"But that's all you've been doing Aang, work, work, work! It's wearing on you man!" Sokka pleaded.

Aang looked into the sky thoughtfully.

Seeing his opportunity Sokka tried once more.

He approached Aang with a cunning look on his face.

"Listen man don't see this as a waste of time, see it as a necessary rescue mission. People will understand if you tell them that it's to rescue someone's helpless lost pet."

He folded his arms confidently and grinned in a very self-assured manner.

Aang didn't reply immediately. He was feeling a bit bored with constantly having to rebuild things. From houses to farmlands, it just didn't seem to stop. And tracking down a panda… he hadn't seen one of those before. It did sound very exciting.

He looked at Sokka with a small smile on his face.

"You do make a compelling argument."

Sokka grinned even wider; he knew Aang's preference for adventure over labour would work in their favour.

"That's the spirit! Come on lets go and see Old Man Higgins about this panda."

-oOo-

It was dark. He silently snuck past a lit window and quietly ran down the alleyway.

He reached the house. He made sure that nobody was following before noiselessly entering the residence.

Only a few candles were lit inside.

"What's the situation sir?" He kneeled in the centre of the room. He made no attempt to remove the hood of his cloak from his head.

"No we are not ready yet" came a gruff voice from the dark. "Send word to continue with the plan."

"Yes sir." He got up and turned to leave but another thought occurred to him. "The avatar sir, some of the men are hesitant to go forth with him being so nearby."

"Do not concern yourself. The avatar has been taken care of."

The cloaked man bowed and then exited the house.

-oOo-


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Three

A Stick In The Wheel

Katara rolled over grumpily. The sun rose way too early in this place!

She sat up sleepily. What time was it? With an enormous amount of effort she dragged her legs out from under the covers and placed them over the edge of her bed. She sat there as she yawned audibly. Slowly she secured her feet on the wooden floor and groggily stood up. Closely imitating a zombie, she staggered over to a washbasin. Whilst yawning a second time, she expertly lifted a small orb of water from the basin and roughly threw it into her face.

Gah! The water's cold!

She was awake now.

She looked around her room. The sun was streaming in through a window whose curtains she had neglected to close the previous night. Must make a note of that, she thought.

She walked past the bed towards her dressing room, the entrance of which was hidden from view by a thick curtain. She pushed the curtain aside and entered the adjoining room. What to wear today?

Her dressing room was pleasantly spacious. Two cosy, white couches stood back to back in the middle of the room. On her left was a long row of cupboards, only a quarter of which where filled with her clothes. Next to the cupboards at the end of the room was a golden-framed, full-length mirror. To her right was a dressing table; all her hair ornaments had been neatly packed into its draws along with the little bit of make-up that she had brought with her. She walked over to the dressing table and picked up her hairbrush, she started stroking it through her hair as she thought of her day ahead.

She was to be giving another waterbending class today. This would be her fourth class since her arrival at the Fire Nation. She currently had three students to teach and she was very pleased with the amount of potential that each one was showing. The eldest of them was a silent eleven-year-old boy called Kuo and the other two were eight-year-old twins; one being a character filled little boy called Shukra, the other being a girl called Jia Ning who rather fancied herself as a princess. Katara laughed; she too had imagined herself as royalty in her younger days, much to the disdain of her family.

A pang of homesickness suddenly struck her as she reminisced about her family. She wondered how it was going with her father and Gran Gran. She had sent them a letter saying that she had arrived safely, but she had yet to receive a reply from them. Yesterday she had received a message from Sokka though. He'd found Aang and he said something about him not meeting up with her just yet and that he would be travelling up North first. Toph was apparently also travelling with them. Oh well.

Katara finished brushing her hair and walked over to the cupboards. She opened the doors and pulled out her favourite blue dress and pants. She quickly surveyed the empty shelves before closing the doors again. She really did not have much clothing that suited this climate. Perhaps she should ask Mai to introduce her to a dressmaker or something.

She stripped off her nightclothes and quickly got dressed into her day attire, making sure she was careful not to mess up her hair. She surveyed herself in the mirror, and after making one or to minor adjustments to her hair, she deemed what she saw to be satisfactory. As she turned to leave, she caught sight of one of her makeup brushes sticking out from one of the dressing table drawers. She paused for a moment, she didn't know why, but lately she really had been feeling like putting more effort into her appearance. Shaking her head slightly, she left her rooms.

Once outside, she paused and looked at the little flowers dotting the floor. She picked up one of the small flowers in the grass and placed it in her hair. Smiling slightly now, she proceeded through the archway that linked her quad to the rest of the palace and followed the delicious smells of breakfast that lingered in the hallways. She carried on to the dinning hall where she normally had her meals.

Upon arrival, Katara thought of her brother and laughed at the thought of how he might have been acting if he had smelt the aromas. She wondered what he was doing right now.

-oOo-

"Yes! And we're off!"

Sokka was in an incredibly good mood. After many, many days they had finally gotten everything that they needed sorted out and where actually on their way! He was so happy he felt like he could start dancing on the spot.

"Well not quite yet Sokka."

The happy, dancing feeling vanished very quickly.

"Huh? Why not?"

Sokka turned to look at Aang with an expression of absolute disbelief. Aang was grinning in an embarrassed way with one of his hands behind the back of his head.

"You see the thing is…"

"Whaaaat?" Sokka had a sneaky suspicion that he knew what Aang was about to say.

"We kinda don't have as many supplies as we originally had."

Yip he knew it!

"WHAT! We just bought more supplies yesterday!"

Sokka looked like he just might pop a blood vessel. Aang just giggled nervously before attempting to explain, knowing that the next thing he was about to say would most probably make Sokka turn an unhealthy shade of purple.

"Yeh I know that…" he looked at the ground thinking that perhaps making it swallow him would not be such a bad idea, "but you see, there where these orphans and they where hungry… and well you know…" he finished off lamely.

"AANG! THAT'S THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK!" Sokka jumped up and down like a possessed jack-in-the-box while waving his arms around madly. He then proceeded to turn an unhealthy shade of purple.

"THERE AREN'T EVEN THAT MANY ORPHANS IN THIS VILLAGE!" He stopped bouncing around like a lunatic and started inhaling and exhaling deeply. He shot Aang one final glare before straightening himself out.

"Look, I know that you mean well, but you have to stop handing out our stuff to other people… We might die of starvation!" Sokka looked incredibly emotional as he said this. "Besides, its only a matter of time before people start taking advantage of your good nature."

Aang knew that Sokka was exaggerating, but he did have a point there. Come to think of it, the most recent 'orphans' were perhaps not quite as alone and hungry looking as they where making it out to be. He sighed.

"Fine, you're right." He looked at the ground for a couple of seconds and then back at Sokka. "How's about I ask Toph to come with me and then ask her to be in charge of the supplies and stuff?"

"I think that'll work."

"Great" Aang flashed Sokka an outstandingly optimistic smile. "Where is Toph anyway?"

"She's just gone to ask some people about the panda and source a map for us to take with."

Sokka paused in thought for a moment.

"You know you'd really think more people would've known that Old Man Higgins had a panda, I mean especially with this being such a small village and all. Not many people that we've asked seemed to know much about it."

Aang shrugged, "People say that he keeps to himself a lot."

The two young men then set off to find Toph.

-oOo-

Zuko found himself in an unusual predicament… he had the afternoon off. Before double-checking a mental 'things-to-do list', he could definitely say that he had this afternoon off.

Splendid!

Now what to do with his spare time? Instantly he thought of going to visit Katara. He hadn't seen her much since her arrival, save for some meal times. He had also promised during their first breakfast to come and watch one of her waterbending classes. This was a good idea he decided and swivelled into a sitting position on his throne and stood up confidently.

He thought of Katara's reaction of him just suddenly arriving at her waterbending class. Would she be pleased to see him? He would certainly be pleased to see her. He would be pleased to hear her voice again, not to mention her laugh, and look into those mesmerising blue eyes of hers…

Mesmerising blue eyes of hers?

Zuko rubbed his hand over his forehead. Where did that come from? He must be working too hard.

As he strode down the corridors towards the new waterbending training area, he contemplated the meetings with counsellors and representatives of various towns that he had sat through over the past week. As he continued to walk he became aware of a familiar person ahead of him.

Mai was standing in the middle of the passage looking at him with a plain expression, waiting for him to walk up to her.

"Hello Mai."

She smiled at him, but he noticed that her smile did not reach her eyes. Was she worried about getting wrinkles or something?

"Hello Fire Lord Zuko." She gave a small curtsy. "How are you?"

"I'm fine thank you."

He purposefully neglected to ask her about her well being as he really did not care to indulge in idle chitchat with her at that particular moment.

He nodded curtly as if to dismiss her and attempted to walk past her. Mai was too quick for him though; he would not get away from her that easily!

She hastily stepped in front of him.

"Zuko" she purred "I was just on my way to come see you." She placed one of her hands on his shoulder while tracing her fingers over his chest with the other. "What are you doing outside your throne room?"

Zuko, feeling remarkably uncomfortable, cleared his throat gingerly and answered her question.

"Well I've got the afternoon off today" Mai felt a faint rush of excitement travel down her spine.

"Well isn't that convenient then that I just happen to be here."

She stood even closer to Zuko, her face inching closer to his.

"If you'd like we can go for a walk together and talk about ways for us to enjoy the afternoon together." She grinned at him, her expression telling him so much more than her words.

Zuko hadn't felt this awkward and uncomfortable since his uncle had tried to give him a talk on puberty during their search for the avatar.

"A-actually Mai, I'm going to go pay Katara a visit." He stammered.

Mai's smile vanished from her face before Zuko could even finish his sentence. She stopped playfully caressing his chest and took a step away from him.

"You are going to see Katara?"

"Yes I am," Zuko quickly seized his opportunity "so I really can't stay to talk."

Mai looked at him with her typical impassive face. "No I don't think you can." She simply stared at him for a moment before saying. "Anyway, I have things to do. Good day Zuko." She stalked off without another word.

Zuko heard himself sigh in relief. He hurriedly turned and continued towards his destination before Mai could change her mind and insist on coming with him.

-oOo-

"You need to lift your arms higher Shukra, now try that one more time."

Katara watched patiently as the small boy reinforced his stance and slowly lifted his arms to his shoulder level, he started making circular motions with his arms. His eyes widened in excitement as a thin strip of water started to lift itself from the fountain. Unfortunately due to his excitement, he started swinging his arms too quickly, which in turn resulted in the strip of water colliding with his face.

The other two observing students burst out laughing while Katara struggled to hide her amusement. Shukra looked stunned at first, but then also dissolved into a sniggering fit.

Katara smiled and bended the water off the child's face and returned it to the fountain.

"Ok, I'm sure you can guess what happened there."

He looked at Katara with a thrilled expression and nodded. He started to attempt waterbending again, but was suddenly distracted by something behind Katara and stopped mid-movement. Kuo and Jia Ning were also staring in the same direction.

Katara turned to see what the distraction was. Zuko was busy walking up a path towards them.

As soon as she had caught sight of him he waved.

"Hey there!" Katara called out to him as she enthusiastically waved back.

She hastily turned around and addressed her charges. "It seems that the Fire Lord has decided to come and watch our practice session. Now I want you all to just relax and do your best and also remember to show him your appreciation for allowing us to use his palace grounds as a practice area ok." She beamed at the three of them. They nodded but seemed to gather closer to one another as though uncertain of what they where supposed to do next.

Katara turned back to face Zuko who was now just a few meters away.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten where our training grounds where" she said jokingly.

Zuko grinned at her sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't think that it would take me this long to find some free time."

"That's ok, I know you're really busy, but I am glad that you're here now." Zuko felt oddly pleased to hear her say that. She led him over to introduce him to her pupils who were looking at the two of them with huge eyes.

"Fire Lord Zuko this is Kuo" she motioned with her hand at the eldest boy, "and these two are Shukra and Jia Ning."

Zuko smiled at the group in, what he hoped was, a non-intimidating way. "Hello and welcome to my home."

The three children stared at him blankly. Katara cleared her throat audibly. Immediately Kuo stepped forward and gave Zuko a hesitant bow, the twins followed his lead and eagerly stepped forward; Shukra gave Zuko and incredibly enthusiastic bow and Jia Ning gave a very dainty curtsy.

Katara smiled at them, "right back to work then. Now Shukra, I believe it was your turn."

-oOo-

For the next hour Zuko watched with much amusement as Katara attempted to teach the young ones how to create a 'water-whip' as she called it. In the end, only the eldest boy had successfully managed it.

"Alright I think we'll call it a day then. Come on let's go inside." Katara looked pleased but also slightly relieved as the class stood in a line and bowed respectfully to her. She started to lead them back to her quad. As she walked past Zuko she smiled at him. "After practise we all go inside and have some snacks, you're welcome to join us."

Zuko looked at the children who now seemed to be much more relaxed in his presence, "I would be grateful to join you, if you'll have me." He looked at the young waterbenders who all nodded to show their approval of him joining them. The little girl even smiled as she did so.

Katara beamed appreciatively at the three of them and then looked back at Zuko, "it seems you are most welcome Fire Lord." Zuko joined the ranks and they all walked back through the archway into Katara's courtyard.

Some servants had placed a small table near the fountain, and on it a small selection of eats and drinks awaited them. The children wasted no time in helping themselves to whatever they fancied.

Zuko watched as Katara quickly barked out instructions to her students to take it easy before she turned to him. She looked into his eyes and gave him a truly angelic smile. "So what did you think of our lesson today?"

"It was…" Zuko struggled to find the right words, "interesting."

"Interesting huh?" Katara looked slightly amused as she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Interestingly hilarious actually" Zuko confessed.

Katara giggled as she looked back over her charges.

"Yes, they are a very entertaining lot aren't they?"

"I'll say, I don't think I've ever seen a waterbender who was afraid to get her new clothes wet before."

"Oh my goodness yes!" Katara rolled her eyes "Jia Ning has been giving me that problem since her first lesson! I tried to explain to her that I could just bend the water off her clothes again, but she is so determined to not let a single drop fall onto her outfit. Did you see how high she jumped when the water that she was bending fell onto the ground near her?"

Zuko chuckled, "It was a leap worthy of Ty Lee."

Katara laughed. "How is Ty Lee doing then?"

"I'm not sure, the last I heard of her was that she was on her way back to the circus." Zuko looked at the snack table and decided that now would be a safe time to try and acquire something to eat.

He walked over to the table and surveyed the various titbits. As he was doing so a servant appeared in the opposite archway of the quad. The servant bowed low. "Miss Katara? The parents have come to collect their children."

"Alright then, thank you very much." Katara turned to her pupils. "Gather up your things please, its time to go." The children obediently gathered up their belongings and headed towards the archway where the servant was standing. They waved good-bye as they left.

After seeing off her class Katara turned to Zuko, "well I suppose it's just me for company now."

Zuko finished chewing and swallowed his pastry. "Yes I suppose it is." He felt elated.

-oOo-

Mai had kept her composure till she was sure she was out of earshot from Zuko. She stopped and took a deep breath before letting out a shrill scream. A nearby passing servant had given her a wild look before quickly running off in the opposite direction.

How dare he, how dare she!

Mai was not able to think clearly, she was livid! How could Zuko reject her for that stupid water-peasant! The bastard!

She clenched her teeth and wildly looked around for anything or anyone to stab one of her throwing knives into. Being very much alone in the corridor, she settled on kicking one of the walls instead. This hurt somewhat. Aargh!

Once the throbbing in her left foot had subsided, she attempted to compose herself again. She might as well just go home!

She had angrily marched down the corridor and had only made it as far as the palace doors. She had been sitting there for the past hour. She had been thinking up various ill intentioned things to say and do to Katara and managed to calm herself considerably in doing so.

Now all she could think about was how Zuko was not busy spending his time with her. This thought threatened to make her blood boil again. This would not do. She should stay calm. She should think this through.

She watched with a bored expression as some people came into the palace and then left again with a few children. A thought occurred to her.

Instead of going home she should march straight to Katara and Zuko and make sure that any possible time that they spent alone was cut to a minimum! Yes, that way if Zuko wanted to spend time with Katara, he would have to do so with herself present.

At that point she swore to herself that she would start spending any time that she could with Katara.

She got up and started tracing her steps back into the palace towards Katara's courtyard.

-oOo-

"Yes I can remember how scary flying on Appa was for the first couple of times, but I got used to it eventually."

Katara and Zuko where sitting on the bench just outside the quad area. After the students had departed their chatter had turned to reminiscing over their days of travelling with Aang and the others.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to flying on a sky-bison." Zuko stretched lazily in the shade. He opened his mouth to say something, but as he did he heard someone calling. We're his advisors lost without him already? Sometimes he wondered if they really where quite as useful as they made themselves out to be. Then he heard the voice calling again.

"Katara!"

He instantly recognised the voice as Mai's.

Before he could stop her, Katara cried out "over here!"

Mai appeared in the archway and walked over to where they where sitting.

"Hello Katara, I thought I might come and pay you a visit. Hello Zuko." Mai quickly wedged herself between Zuko and Katara before anyone could react.

"Hello Mai." Katara looked stunned at seeing her again. "How are you?"

"Oh I'm just fine thank you." Mai blatantly turned her back on Zuko and faced Katara. She started talking about how slack her servants where being these days and how she was trying to fit more practise time for her dagger-throwing into her busy schedule.

Mai was acting unnaturally cheery Zuko decided. He also decided that now was probably a very good time to make his next escape form Mai. Regrettably this did mean leaving Katara as well…

Oh well, what needs to be done needs to be done.

He stood up. "It seems that I have some important business to attend to. Thank you for your company today, Katara. Mai." He greeted them both very formally and walked off without glancing backwards. Katara was surprised at his sudden change of attitude and slightly hurt that he had taken off so suddenly.

Mai, on the other hand, seemed unfazed and very directly asked "So what have you two been up to?"

Katara blinked at Mai in slight confusion. "Hmmm? Oh well, Zuko came to watch one of my waterbending classes today. I think he really enjoyed it."

"Oh isn't that nice." Mai grinned alarmingly at Katara before sitting back and visibly relaxing.

After a short pause Mai said "you know it's Zuko's birthday in a few weeks time."

Katara digested this new piece of information. She had known that Zuko had a birthday, obviously, but he had always been so secretive about when it was. She wondered why this was.

Mai continued in a haughty tone "yes, and its tradition that the Fire Lord invite a lady to be his companion for the evening. With me being of noble blood, it is certainly of no doubt to me that I will be the one that he asks."

Katara sat back and stared up into he sky. She was not so sure why this strange girl was so eager to keep her company from time to time. Obviously she was trying to befriend her, but there were sometimes moments when Katara would question this motif. However Katara found herself feeling lonely in this huge place, so she allowed these visits from Mai to distract her. Maybe she would learn to like this odd girl.

-oOo-

From his vantage point Zuko watched the two women converse and watched as Mai eventually left. He watched intently as Katara lingered outside for a while.

Perhaps he should have stayed after all, that way Mai would eventually have left and he would have been able to spend more time with Katara.

His eyes followed her as she walked back to her living quarters. She closed the quad doors behind her.

Maybe he should just go back there now. He could do that. He could then just tell her that he had finished doing whatever it was that he had to do and that he had some more free time on his hands. That could work!

Zuko, while considering what he would tell Katara, walked back inside off the balcony and started back towards the gardens. Unfortunately at that precise moment, one off his advisors came walking up the corridor in the opposite direction.

Zuko's heart sank as the man caught sight of him and started walking over to him.

"Fire Lord! I have been meaning to talk to you about something."

Oh well.

-oOo-


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Four

Closing Distances

Katara lifted up her arms dramatically and stomped her foot on the ground to move into a new stance. Her three students watched in awe as she swirled a large mass of water around herself and then around each one of them in turn. She bended the water back into the fountain and then signalled for her students to get up and stand in a circle. She stared giving out further instructions to the group but he couldn't hear what she was saying from his viewpoint.

Zuko leaned forward onto the balcony rail and continued to watch as Katara began teaching her next waterbending trick to the young trio. It seemed to him that the pupils had finally managed to master Katara's last lesson of the 'water whip' and had moved on to the next. He sincerely hoped that the next lesson would prove to be as entertaining as the last had been.

As he watched, he paid less attention to the students and more to Katara. He watched as her long braid twisted gracefully behind her back. He watched her turn around every so often, catching fleeting glimpses of her face. He watched how her slender, yet surprisingly strong arms elegantly cut through the air and commanded the water to obey her every wish. He simply watched her; mesmerised by her every movement from afar.

A man behind him cleared his throat.

Zuko instantly snapped out of his trance-like state and hastily turned around as if he were small boy who had been caught eating cookies before dinner. His chief advisor was standing before him, his left eyebrow slightly raised. Realising that he had nothing to be feeling guilty about, Zuko quickly composed himself and tried to save face in front of his advisor.

"Your Highness." The tall, bearded man bowed to Zuko, "I have good news to tell you."

"News? Lets hear it then." Zuko secretly hoped that the man in front of him was about to say that the afternoon meeting with the Earth Kingdom representatives had been cancelled, but he knew that this would be unlikely. Still, good news is good news.

"The Southern Water Tribe has accepted our trade offer and is requesting that we send over representatives so that we can negotiate prices!" The man looked positively gleeful. "Sire, it seems that your plan to start up a waterbending school is working! Hopefully in a few month's time the Northern Water Tribe will follow suit."

"That is indeed excellent news. I appreciate you coming to tell me." Zuko said pleasantly.

The man bowed low again, "as well as this Fire Lord Zuko, the Earth Kingdom representatives are here, shall I accompany you to our venue?"

"No thank you, go ahead of me and tell them that I will meet with them shortly."

"I will do as His Highness wishes." The man bowed one last time as he took a few paces backwards and then turned and promptly walked off to meet with the arrivals.

Zuko took one last look at the fountain that was surrounded by the youths before also commencing on his way to his meeting, albeit at a slower pace. As he walked he scolded himself for jumping like he had when his advisor had approached him. That really was not in accordance to his usual Fire Lordly style! What was wrong with him?

As he continued to walk he gazed at the familiar surroundings of his palace; pretty paintings of native trees and flowers hung on the red tinted walls and the usual stone floors were covered in a rich, thick carpet. Zuko thought of his past week since he had visited Katara's waterbending school. He had come to the realization that since then he had developed an annoying habit of visiting that balcony more and more often. He found himself making any excuses to pass by there, regardless of whether it was on his way or not; as well as that he came to find that Katara had taken to plaguing his thoughts on a regular basis. He knew that strictly speaking this wasn't her fault, but he just could not conclude why his behaviour had taken such turn. Why was he acting so strangely lately?

He furrowed his brow as he got closer to his destination, what was it that was troubling him? Could it be?

He stopped walking

Of course! He was feeling bad because he hadn't been playing a good host to Katara! That had to be it. Hmmm he should do something about that then.

He started walking again.

He should perhaps invite her to dinner… a more private dinner that is, somewhere where nobody would disturb them. That way they could catch up and talk more without any interruptions. He liked this idea. He made a mental note to go down to see Katar as soon as he could and ask her to dinner. A self-assured grin plastered itself onto Zuko's face as he marched into the throne room to begin his negotiations with the Earth Nation people.

-oOo-

Sokka sighed and gazed wistfully at the ever distant horizon as they continued to fly north. Why was this journey taking so long? Oh yes; it was because they had stopped at numerous smaller villages over the past few weeks to inquire about the panda creature and either all the villagers had stared at them blankly, or they all had begun babbling and pointing in opposite directions. Luckily they had a map or they would've definitely lost the trail by now.

Sokka sat upright and pulled the map out from one of their bags. He looked at it carefully and then leaned sideways to look over the edge of Appa's saddle.

"Hey Aang"

"Yup"

"Don't you think these trees look familiar?" Sokka looked at the map again and then surveyed the ground below for a second time.

"Well Sokka, most trees in these parts do look alike don't they?"

"Yeh, but I mean familiar as in we might be at the right place. Here take a look." He climbed over to Appa's head where Aang was sitting and brandished the piece of paper in front of the avatar's face. Aang took the map with an interested expression. Sokka eagerly pointed out his findings.

"See this circular patch over here?"

"Uh-huh"

"Right; and see that large patch of dark green trees that make up a similar circular shape?"

Aang looked up from the map and regarded the dark trees. He frowned.

"I don't know Sokka, that tree patch seems to be more oval-shaped."

"Oh come on! They are exactly the same shape; and that means that the panda could be nearby!"

Again Aang looked at the ominous patch of forest that loomed just before them.

"Sokka, I'm not sure that this is the right place, maybe if we just went a little further we could find someone who has more news on the panda. We could backtrack then if we have to."

"We have been flying around for two days without spotting as much as a woodcutter!" Toph suddenly spoke up. "I recon we should just land in the forest and take our chances."

Aang looked from Sokka to Toph. He sighed in defeat "Ok then." He shook Appa's reigns and slowly the party started to descend.

-oOo-

It had taken them some time to find a landing spot big enough for Appa, and once on the ground Aang looked up towards the barely visible sky. He wasn't so sure about this place. Toph gladly slid down Appa's side and embraced the feeling of solid ground beneath her feet. Sokka merely climbed off Appa and smartly surveyed the area around them.

"This isn't so bad now is it?" His voice was confident and reassuring. Aang thought that either Sokka had failed spectacularly at noticing the blatant creepiness of everything around them, or he was putting on a very brave face. "Come on this way." Sokka squared his shoulders and started walking towards the center of the dark trees.

Aang looked at Momo and Appa, both where looking incredibly disgruntled and upset at the prospect of having to travel further into the forest. "You two can stay here" Aang told them, and then he and Toph followed Sokka.

About five minutes in Toph stopped very abruptly.

"Something is coming!" Both Sokka and Aang halted and turned to face her.

"Is it the panda?" Sokka asked keenly.

"I don't think so" she kneeled down and put her hand on the ground. "It's a bunch of small creatures that are heading this way." She looked straight ahead of them "They are coming from that direction."

Aang and Sokka looked towards where Toph was facing. Unsure of what to do next, they crouched into defensive stances.

They waited.

An eventual chattering noise started to become apparent.

At first it was very faint, but the noise grew louder and louder.

Aang could feel the small hairs on his arms rising from nervous anticipation.

The noise continued to grow even louder until it became almost deafening.

The sound was coming from all around them. Sokka and Aang moved and stood back-to-back, still in their defensive positions, still wildly unsure of what was about to happen next.

Then all at once the noise stopped. Now instead a deafening silence filled the air.

Sokka and Aang continued to cautiously stare into the denseness of the forest.

Suddenly a pair of glowing eyes appeared out of the darkness followed by what seemed to be hundreds more.

Sokka and Aang braced themselves.

Then Toph let out a burst of laughter that nearly made them jump into each other's arms, "relax you guys, they are only chipmonkeys!"

Sokka and Aang let out a simultaneous "huh?"

At that moment a small fluffy creature with a long monkey tail and chipmunk teeth bounced into view. It scratched its right ear with its hind leg and then looked up at them with huge black soulful eyes. Sokka and Aang relaxed and cooed "aaaah".

Aang looked at the small thing excitedly, "It's so cute!" He immediately made to go over to it.

"Aah, I don't think you should be doing that" Toph warned him.

"Relax Toph; I have a way with animals."

"Yeh Toph, relax" Sokka chimed in "what could these furry little guys do to us?"

Aang crept closer to the little critter, "hey there little guy, have you seen a panda in these woods?" He stretched out his hand to try and pet the chipmonkey. The little creature sniffed his hand thoughtfully, but then got stage fright and bounced back to sit with its kin.

Aang smiled up at the critters, "hey you guys come on; we're not going to hurt you."

"Yeh come down here" Sokka waved his hands above his head.

"No really you guys, chipmonkeys like to be left alone; we are already deep in their territory." Toph warned a second time.

"You're only saying that because you can't see how cute and harmless they are" Sokka said dismissively.

"Fine then have it your way" said Toph whilst shaking her head slightly and slowly starting to back away.

The two guys continued to make cooing and chattering sounds whilst waving their arms about in high hopes that they would convince some of the fluff-balls to come down from their trees. For a moment it seemed to be working, a large number of them suddenly started to climb down to the ground. They sat there for a moment before starting to pick up small pebbles lying around them.

Aang and Sokka stopped what they were doing and watched with much interest as the chipmonkeys continued to gather stones.

"Toph, what are they doing?" Aang asked out of the corner of his mouth, his voice filled with slight concern.

There was no reply. Aang looked back to where Toph had been standing only to find that she had deserted them. He looked back at Sokka.

"I think that perhaps Toph was right" Sokka said needlessly as he glanced around at the surrounding trees. They both started taking small steps away from the animals. As they slowly retreated, the chipmonkeys slowly started advancing.

"I think that we should make a strategic retreat" Sokka quietly announced.

"You mean run away right?" Aang asked.

They took one last look at the advancing chipmonkeys. Suddenly the troop leader let out a loud squeal and all the other chipmonkeys immediately began throwing stones at the trespassers.

"YES I MEAN RUN AWAY!"

The two turned and sprinted off, shielding their heads with their arms as they ran through the stony hail. They ran as fast as they could, but somehow the chipmonkeys still managed to keep up. Nevertheless, they continued to tear through the woods, heading directly for Appa so as to make their escape.

It was Aang who spotted the bison first. He noticed a slim figure dress in green leaning very nonchalantly against the bison. Aang mentally kicked himself for not listening to her earlier. As they got closer she climbed into Appa's saddle.

"Come on you slow pokes!"

Aang could hear Sokka grumbling audibly. They scrambled up onto Appa. "Yip-yip!" Aang instructed Appa. The party rose through the trees to safety in the sky.

"Not a word" Sokka instructed Toph.

Toph simply smiled and made herself more comfortable.

-oOo-

Mai glided through the passageways of the palace in her usual manner. Today was going to be yet another day of watching infants trying to do some pointless water trick and more mindless chatter with the waterbending girl. Fun… if by fun you mean nauseating.

Mai sighed; pretending that you liked or cared about what others thought was exhausting work.

She turned to her right and was about to walk down the passage ahead of her when she noticed someone at the other end. The person was walking; his back to her, but Mai could instantly tell that it was Zuko. He was alone too, excellent.

She was on the verge of calling over to him, but something stopped her. She noticed his stride was different – more bouncy and happy somehow. Now what could be the cause of that?

Zuko turned the corner and disappeared from view.

Mai felt a trickle of confusion followed by mild irritation as she though about the Fire Lord's current mood, or rather the origin thereof. She knew that this was probably nothing to feel hassled over, but still, she couldn't help but feel that a certain troublesome guest was responsible. Hmmm, she would have to see to that.

She proceeded to find Katara.

-oOo-

Katara was busy finishing off with one of her classes. Mai opted to lean against the quad archway in the shade. Once Katara had finished she came to stand next to Mai.

"Hello" Mai greeted her in a dull voice.

"Hey there Mai!" Katara greeted back cheerfully, "how was your morning?"

"Boring" Mai shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Katara gave her a confused look; Mai reacted by giving a very slight smile.

Katara tried to say something to Mai, but couldn't think of anything, so instead she turned her attention to her pupils who where once again ravishing the eats table. While Katara marshalled over the younger ones, Mai though about Zuko. It bothered her to think that he was so happy about something that didn't involve her. Not to worry though, she would make sure that this didn't happen again.

Mai bided her time, waiting till after the children had gone. Once Katara had settled down to relax in her room, Mai made her move.

"I saw Zuko today"

"Oh really... How is he?" Katara asked with a note of interest in her voice.

"He is tired." Mai answered whilst leaning back into a comfortable arm chair, Katara looked at her in a concerned manner.

Mai continued "I think that he just has too much stuff to do and it's wearing on him." She looked at Katara and felt a slight rush of pleasure in seeing her desired reaction "oh well, I guess it goes with the territory." She tried to look concerned herself. "I do my best to stay out of his way. Poor Zuko, he gets very stressed when he has to spend time away from his work."

Katara looked down into her lap "Oh… I didn't realise."

Mai went in for the final blow "I suppose what would help him most is if we showed him that we can manage just fine without him. Let him know that he need not spend all his valuable free time with us."

There was a short pause as Katara considered what Mai had just said.

Then in a voice poignant voice replied "I suppose you are right, after all, Zuko's work as the new Fire Lord is of the utmost importance to us all right now."

"I'm glad you agree." Mai smiled slyly to herself, soon she wouldn't have to watch Katara like a hawk anymore, Katara would be pushing Zuko away all by herself.

-oOo-

He knocked three times in succession on the door.

It opened quietly and the man slipped into the shadowy darkness of the house.

Once the door was closed and securely locked, a small lamp was lit. A second man with a cloaked face held it higher to inspect the visitor. He was in a red guard's uniform.

"What is it?" spat out the man with the covered face.

"Sir, my apologies for disturbing you like this." The man got onto his hands and knees and bowed low to the cloaked figure.

"You had better have a good reason for daring to come here."

"My lord," he began shaking slightly "it is too dangerous my lord, we cannot get any closer without getting caught, we are already risking much!"

As though in a rage of fury, the man threw off his cape and made as if to strike the crouching person in front of him. He stopped just as his blazing fist was about to make contact.

"Fools! Do you not realize what is at stake here!" He extinguished his flaming hand.

The man on the floor whimpered slightly. "We need more time my lord; we cannot rush this lest we fail!"

With his lantern in hand the turned his back and walked a few paces. He then lifted his free hand "So be it. Tell the rest to be on guard should an opportunity appear."

"Yes my lord" he said, still trembling as he got up from the floor.

He nearly made it to the door.

"Oh and one more thing" said his leader. The man stopped at the door, clasping the handle. "Don't dare set foot here again looking like that."

The door closed swiftly behind him.

-oOo-


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Five

Plans Gone Astray

As the days slowly started to turn to weeks, Zuko found that he had developed a ritual of visiting the balcony from which he could see the waterbender. Every morning and evening without fail he would walk that way, always lingering just long enough to catch a glimpse of Katara before hastily making for his pending appointments. He scolded himself each time that he did this, but yet he found himself doing nothing to prevent it. What was wrong with him?

On one or two occasions, he had actually gone down to pay her a visit, but for some reason she had always been very busy, so he cut his visits short.

It was getting late. The crescent moon rose majestically into the blackened sky, its dim light casting a sliver hue to everything it touched. Zuko stared at the distant fountain; nobody was there as Katara had long since finished her class for the day. He imagined her gently moving her arms through the air as strips of water danced playfully around her.

Something began irking him in the back of his mind.

Had he forgotten something?

He reflected on his tasks and activities over the past week; he had finally managed to close the trade deal with the Earth Kingdom, and Fire Nation representatives had been dispatched to the Southern Water Tribe. Maybe it had to do with something else?

As he wracked his brain to try and solve this mystery, he imagined Katara creating animal shapes out of water to amuse her students.

Maybe he still had to do something…

Zuko sighed, he had had a long day and his thoughts were sluggish. He placed his forearms on the balcony rail and rested his weight on them. He continued to stare at the vacant fountain as if a small dwarf with a signpost would spring out from behind it and wave the answer at him. In his younger days he had always turned to his mother to assist him when he had forgotten things. She had always been so sympathetic and patient with him even though she didn't have the faintest idea as to what he had forgotten. Zuko breathed in deeply through his nostrils and out again through his mouth, a technique his mother had taught him to help him clear his head…. Still nothing though.

A slight breeze began to pick up; Zuko could feel the cool night air gently brushing against his face. He suppressed a yawn; perhaps he should just call it a day and return to his chambers. He would try and remember whatever it was tomorrow.

As he stood up, a long thin streak of light suddenly appeared on the grass near the fountain. Zuko's heart skipped a beat as he saw that it was Katara opening the courtyard doors. She walked over to the fountain and with much skill commanded the water from the fountain. She began flinging the water around her, obviously practicing more expert moves after a long day of repeating the basics. Zuko watched her, glad that he had not yet left the balcony.

As he watched her, the irking feeling started to grow. What was it that he was forgetting? He stared down at the beautiful waterbender while trying earnestly to remember. And then, as if by some magical force, he remembered – the dinner!

Oh yes, he had decided to ask Katara to enjoy a private dinner with him! He turned from the balcony immediately and began to make his way down to Katara, feeling rather chuffed that he had finally figured out the mystery that had bothered him so. Then a second thought struck him.

He was the Fire Lord.

He had an image to uphold.

He could most certainly not go down to an unaccompanied young lady's chambers at this time of night without creating the wrong kind of impression. The honorable thing to do would be to either send down a servant girl or wait until tomorrow.

Zuko halted abruptly.

He certainly felt a very strong urge to see Katara, but he wasn't sure what the next day held in store for him; he also felt equally determined to not further delay her invite.

Zuko let out an angry growl. He would send a servant girl to relay his invitation.

Stupid Fire Nation customs!

-oOo-

Chiaki was told that the Fire Lord was in the library. She boldly stood in front of the smooth doors and knocked loudly. Upon hearing the Fire Lord grant her entrance, she marched in and quickly spotted Zuko looking at a large picture on the wall.

"You sent for me Fire Lord sir?" Chiaki bowed low to show her respect for the Fire Lord.

"Yes, thank you for coming." Zuko turned away from the great map of the Fire Nation that was proudly displayed in a golden frame to face her.

"I need you to send a message to Katara."

"Of course Your Majesty." Chiaki looked up and quickly brushed her hair out of her eyes, "what is it that you wish me to convey to her?"

Zuko looked at the highly eccentric girl in front of him. She had a slightly wild look to her, mostly due to her disheveled fly-away hair and sharp mischievous eyes.

She also happened to be wearing a bright purple headband.

On many occasions Zuko had noticed her desperately trying to tame her mane when she thought that nobody was looking, but often her attempts were unsuccessful. So as a result, she had resorted to wearing the vivid headband in an effort to make herself appear neater.

The headband failed miserably. It was also not part of the servant's uniform. But seeing as Chiaki had so faithfully served in the palace since Zuko's coronation, everybody just decided to let her be… plus she had stubbornly refused to remove the damned thing!

She would be perfect for the job.

"On behalf of myself, I would like you to extend an invitation to Katara to join me for dinner tomorrow evening." Zuko instructed her.

"Is that all my Lord?" she asked, a slight confusion evident in her voice.

"Yes it is" said Zuko with a small smile. "But there is also a condition attached."

"A condition... what is the condition if I may ask?" Her interest was suddenly peaked.

"Under absolutely no circumstance are you to take 'no' for an answer, do you understand?" Zuko's smile widened mischievously.

Chiaki's eyes grew big with excitement.

"Very well sir, I'll go ask her at once!" Chiaki brushed her bangs from her face once more and speedily turned to leave the room, forgetting completely to bow to the Fire Lord as she left.

Zuko sniggered softly as he turned to face the map once more.

-oOo-

Katara closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. She lowered her arms and shifted her weight.

"One more time" she told herself forcefully.

She dramatically spun on the spot, throwing her arms high into the air while jets of water from the fountain spontaneously flew into the sky and started forming a large mass just slightly higher than her head. She shifted her stance and started coaxing the water to go even further up.

Higher and higher still.

She was finally going to break her record, she could just feel it. Still higher… and even higher than that…

"HEY KATARA!"

"Huh?"

Katara opened her eyes and for a single second forgot about the liters of water floating high above her head. By the time she remembered the floating blob, it was too late. The watery mass hovered for a split second before crashing back down to earth. Katara looked up just in time to see her hard work rushing back to meet her and quickly closed her eyes again. There was a magnificent splash as the equivalent of a tidal wave spilled onto and around Katara, almost knocking her off her feet and soaking her entirely from head to toe.

Katara opened her eyes.

A girl with a brilliant purple headband was rolling on the wet ground, shrieking with laughter.

"Ha ha very funny Chiaki!" Katara retorted sarcastically before angrily bending as much water as she could off herself.

"Oh… my… GOODNESS! You look like… a… drowned ratdog!" Chiaki managed to pant out between laughter.

Katara looked at the now very muddy servant girl who was still rolling on the ground; even in her livid state Katara had to admit that this probably was a rather humorous situation. Nevertheless, she continued to gaze sternly at Chiaki as her laughing eventually subsided. She stood up and attempted to brush herself off before she looked at Katara.

"Could you?" She motioned at her wet, muddy clothes.

"Fine" Katara sighed and bended water over the girl to get rid of the mud and dry her.

After a quick inspection of her general state of dryness, Chiaki bounced up to Katara and in a sing-song voice said "I have a message for yooooou!"

"What is it?" Katara asked, her arms folded but her frustrations from a few moments ago beginning to melt away.

Chiaki linked her arm through Katara's and started leading her back to her room over the squelching lawn. "It's the Fire Lord; he wants to invite you to a dinner with him tomorrow."

"A dinner?" Katara repeated slowly.

"Yes you know, at night time people tend to get hungry from working all day so they sit down and have food." Chiaki looked at Katara cheekily. Katara looked back at her with narrowed eyes. Chiaki just started giggling again and brushed a few strands of hair from her face.

As they continued to walk towards the courtyard Katara thought about Zuko's offer, of course she would like to have dinner with him, but didn't Mai say that such things caused him unnecessary stress? Perhaps she should just decline.

But then again, maybe it would do him some good to get away from his work; it certainly would do her a whole lot good. Maybe she should accept.

But maybe he is only doing this because he feels he has to, in which case she should decline… Katara was slowly starting to feel like she was being split in two.

"Ok, well I'll tell him you'll be there!" Chiaki unexpectedly announced.

"Wait! What?" Katara went from feeling very uncertain to very confused.

"I will tell Lord Zuko that you will be seeing him tomorrow night" Chiaki repeated as if she was stating the most obvious thing in the world.

"No, no don't do that!" Katara had no idea why she felt so urgent all of a sudden.

Chiaki turned and looked at Katara with her eyebrows raised "you mean to tell me that that you are declining Lord Zuko's offer?" She looked shocked at the very thought. "You are declining poor Zuko the joy of an evening off even though he has spent weeks trying to free up his schedule to do so?"

She dramatically put her hand on her heart and looked at Katara as if she were on her dying bed.

"You know Katara, the only reason he gets an evening off is because he has said that it is an important business meeting with you" she said in a chocked up voice while frailly putting her arm around Katara's shoulders. "He really, really, reeeeeally wants to see you." Chiaki hung her head dramatically.

"Nice try Chiaki, but my brother used to pull that all the time when we were little." Katara said nonchalantly.

"It was the 'really, really' part that was too much wasn't it?" Chiaki asked looking up, all pretences of sorrow instantly vanishing.

"Yeh, sure lets go with that" Katara replied with an amused grin on her face. Chiaki grinned back at Katara.

They continued to walk all the way to Katara's bedroom and both proceeded inside. Katara, in her somewhat drained state, immediately walked over to her bed and flopped down onto the edge thereof. Chiaki took a running leap and landed next to Katara.

"You know, I wasn't lying when I said that Zuko really wants to see you." Chiaki told Katara with a smug grin on her face. "He even said that I was not to leave until you said yes to his invitation." She put her arms behind her head and lay back onto the incredibly comfortable bed.

Katara sat in silence for a while, Zuko really wanted to see her that much? But what about what Mai said? Perhaps she was mistaken? Oh to hell with Mai, she would go and see Zuko!

"Ok ok I'll go!" Katara said finally.

"Good!" Chiaki smiled at her, "I'll go tell Zuko that you'll be seeing him then!" She got up and skipped off through the doorway before Katara could say another word.

-oOo-

Mai stood in the archway that linked the waterbender's quarters to the rest of the palace. Despite feeling much more confident that Katara would not be spending any more time with Zuko, she still felt compelled to visit her from time to time to ensure that her plan was working continuously.

Mai looked ahead of her, the courtyard was currently deserted, the central fountain trickled coolly in the background and a few crickets were beginning to chirp their nightly tune. But despite the serene atmosphere, Mai knew that at any moment now Katara would be finishing her bending lesson for the day and then the loud and clumsy infants would be pouring through the doorways, completely ruining the calm atmosphere of the evening. Still, she continued to stand in the archway motionlessly; she might as well try and enjoy the silence while it lasted.

As if on queue the opposite courtyard doors burst open and Katara's three laughing students poured into the quad, completely ignored Mai, and headed straight for the snack table. A worn-out Katara followed the small crowd in; she looked a little surprised to see Mai standing at the archway.

"Hey Mai, long time no see." She waved at Mai and began to make her way over to where the pale woman stood.

"Yes it has been a while" Mai smiled slightly.

Katara reached Mai and looked unsure as to whether she should hug Mai or not, but after a few seconds of deliberating she decided against it.

The two of them stood awkwardly next to each other, Mai not wishing to start a conversation with Katara, and Katara not sure how to start a conversation with Mai.

"So how have you been since I last saw you?" Katara began, hoping that Mai would at least say something that she could converse on. But Mai simply shrugged her shoulders and in a droning voice replied "Fine."

Too tired to force a conversation at this point, Katara sighed and shook her head slightly in defeat. She glanced over at her students, wishing that they would start brawling so that she would have an excuse to leave Mai's side.

"So how have you been?"

Katara whipped her head around in surprise and looked at Mai, "I've been great thanks" Katara couldn't believe that Mai was actually making an effort to talk with her, "the lessons are going well. Hopefully we will be able to start on one or two more advanced moves soon." Katara looked back at her students and beamed at them proudly.

"I see" Mai droned once again, "and how is Zuko, have you seen him much lately?"

"Well actually no," Katara admitted "he came by once or twice but I made it clear to him that he didn't have to worry about us so he has been visiting much less since."

Mai smiled shrewdly to herself as Katara began calling her students together to take them to the palace entrance; her plan had worked! She could now go home and not bother herself with this peasant anymore.

As Mai turned to leave Katara called out "but I'll tell Zuko that you asked about him, he invited me to dinner with him this evening."

Mai stopped very suddenly. The pleasant sensation of success from a few seconds ago had turned to ice. Katara was going to see Zuko that evening?

Mai turned to face Katara again "oh really?" she asked, her expression unreadable.

"Yes" Katara replied, uncertainty apparent in her tone, "well actually he sent someone down to invite me, but it is the thought that counts isn't it?"

"Yes I suppose it is."

As Katara left with the three children she glanced back over her shoulder to give Mai a calculating look.

Mai felt like screaming, how could this happen? She had to think of something quickly or else her chances of being Zuko's date on his birthday would evaporate before her eyes. She began pacing the courtyard, waiting for Katara to return.

Upon her return, Katara was hastily escorted inside by Mai.

"Katara don't you remember what I told you only the day?"

"Yes of course I do, but I just couldn't say no to such an insistent invite" Katara replied in her defense.

Mai sighed and walked over to a window that over looked the courtyard "of course he would want to see you, he is a good host." Mai stood in silence for a moment. "It's just that…" she shook her head and continued to stare out the window.

"What?" Katara asked, intrigued by Mai's sudden tenderness.

"Oh it's nothing; you'll think I'm being silly."

"No I won't" Katara gently replied "what is it? Is something the matter?"

Mai turned around and with a longing gaze said "it's just that I think you are so lucky to be invited to see Zuko." She walked over to the bed and sat down with her head bowed, "even though we broke up, Zuko and I still remain good friends" Mai looked at Katara with a small sadness in her eyes, Katara nodded understandingly. Mai continued, "But it has been such a long time since I've seen him properly. I really miss him." She bit her lip and looked away dramatically.

Katara looked at Mai sympathetically "I'm sure that he'll also make a time to see you Mai." Mai simply nodded her head, but didn't look back at Katara. Silence ensued. Mai could practically feel the guilt and sympathy building up in Katara.

"Well how about this then" Mai looked at Katara hopefully, "you go in my place, and then next time I go in your place. I'm sure Zuko won't mind"

Mai smiled gratefully at Katara "do you really mean that?"

"Of course I do"

Mai stood up and hugged Katara. "Thank you, this means a lot to me."

"Sure thing Mai" Katara hugged her back, pleased with her good deed for the day.

Mai let go of Katara "well I suppose I'd better go and get ready then."

"Ok I'll walk you to the door."

At the archway leading to the rest of the palace, Mai and Katara waved each other goodbye, but as soon as Katara was out of earshot Mai sniggered cruelly to herself. This had worked out all too perfectly.

-oOo-

Rukaro smiled sadistically.

His idea was brilliant.

After a visit from one of his spies about a week ago, he had learnt that he Fire Lord was liaising with the Earth Kingdom.

Since, a thought had struck him.

He had sent as may rebels as he could spare to the Earth Kingdom. He had commanded them to start causing as much devastation as possible. All of which would be done by firebending.

This would begin tarnishing the already feeble reputation that the Fire Nation had built within the Earth Kingdom.

The Fire Lord would have no choice but to send out his guards to go and quickly calm the situation.

Rukaro turned to start pacing the darkened room. Soon he would be receiving word that the rebellions had started taking place in the Earth Kingdom. The all he would have to do was wait for the right moment to pounce on the unsuspecting Fire Lord and seize his crown.

Three knocks came from the door. Rukaro hastily covered his face lest an intruder had discovered his whereabouts. "Enter" he commanded.

A slim man with small ready but sly looking eyes entered into the house and knelt before him.

"I trust that you have god news for me" Rukaro said, his deep voice breaking the silence that filled the room.

The man looked up with a malicious smile.

"Yes my Lord" he softly hissed "exceptionally good news."

-oOo-

Author's note: Ok I suppose that it's about time that I explain myself.

Firstly; hello to everybody reading this and thank you for taking the time to read my fanfic.

Secondly; thank you to those of you who have taken, and still will take, the additional time and effort to review my work – I sincerely appreciate the feedback, thank you.

The next order of business – Yes Mai is out of character. I realize this and have pondered this somewhat before I wrote my story. Here is my reasoning for making her like she is:

1 – The timeframe when my story takes place is eight years after Aang managed to restore peace throughout the world. That's a long time. People tend to change over time… some more than others. This is basically my interpretation of how the characters have grown up. Mai especially. My elucidation of events is that she has been bottling her emotions up for so long because she has (insert issues here because I'm not sure why she is like she is), and now her suppressed emotions are starting to bubble over and show themselves. She can't help but act more strongly on them simply because she has been denying them for so long. Quite frankly I refuse to believe that anyone (even a fictional character) is that capable of rejecting all one's emotions so completely for a lifetime and for no decent reason. So now she is becoming more, well, human. Albeit one with not-so-nice intentions.

2 – I need someone to cause problems. If Mai was really in true character, she would've left everybody alone and my story would simply not work out! It's as simple as that, I need someone to cause mayhem.

3 – Personally, I find that Mai is a very tedious character to write about (apologies to the Mai fans). There are only so many ways to say boring and emotionless. So truth be told – I just don't like her very much so I changed her a bit.

All in all, this is just my opinion and this is how I think certain things would work out amongst the characters. That been said - keep them reviews coming!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Six

Realisations

Zuko twisted uncomfortably as Mai smiled maliciously and reached forward to stroke his face.

His arms felt as if they were pinned to his sides and wouldn't obey his furious mental orders to move. Mai let out a harsh laugh at his futile attempts to shun her affections and placed her second hand on his chest.

Zuko quickly tried to stand up, but his legs too seemed to be stuck together as if by some magical force.

Mai was leaning closer.

They were falling backwards.

The room around him turned black and everything started to move in slow motion. Still Zuko struggled to move his inanimate limbs as Mai's lips began advancing towards his.

With a huge effort his left arm managed to break free and he quickly tried to push Mai away, but something caught his wrist.

He looked up to find his wrist shackled to a wall.

Feeling panic rising in his chest, he looked down again to find that his whole body was covered in chains, restricting his every movement.

A shrill giggle diverted his attention to the large window opposite him.

Mai and Katara stood just in front of the window.

The panicked feeling in Zuko's chest continued to grow as he saw that Katara was also bound and chained like he was.

Mai smiled sweetly at him, "she won't be bothering us any more!" Mai slowly turned to Katara and forcefully pushed her out of the open window.

"ZUKO!" Katara screamed as she disappeared into blackness.

"KATARA!"

He urgently tried to firebend his way out of the chains that held him.

"KATARA!"

His left hand broke free from the burning metal as he sat up and angrily blasted fire at Mai who dissolved in front of his eyes.

Zuko sat panting in his bed. He looked around and quickly noticed that he had managed to thoroughly tangle himself in his bed sheets, the corner of which recently having been set alight. Zuko growled in the back of his throat as he struggled out of his blankets and hastily put out the small blazes. Once done, he lay back in his bed and stared at the ceiling while thinking about his previous evening.

He considered it to have possibly been one of the worst dinners of his life!

He thought of his incredible disappointment at seeing Mai walk thought the dinning room doors instead of his friend Katara. With a slight shudder, he remembered how Mai had shamelessly flirted with him and how she had kept on reminding about his upcoming birthday party. Zuko had done his best to divert the conversation, but Mai had always s found a way to re-direct the topic of conversation back to him and his date possibilities. It was an exhausting affair.

As soon as the waiters had marched in with the food laden trays, Zuko had wasted no time; he had practically inhaled his food and had left the dinning room before Mai had even finished with her sorbet. Zuko rubbed sleep out his eyes with the palms of his hands; simply thinking about last night was tiring.

As he sat up in his bed again, Zuko frowned, he had a very strong mind to go confront Katara about why she had ditched him last night. He could even do it right now! Had he not prepared an angry lecture just for her since the incident last night? After a quick mental debate, he decided that he would go do just that. Zuko determinedly got out of bed and started to get dressed while mentally rehearsing his prominent speech.

-oOo-

Katara furiously scurried around her room, hastily trying to locate more non-breakable items before her class arrived for the day. Now that her students had learned to execute a few decent basic moves, she decided that they needed to hone their skills in order to properly improve their bending. Hence she decided on target practice. She also happened to be very tired of having to constantly bend water off everyone to keep them dry. Perhaps she should recommend that they bring ponchos in the future.

So far she had only managed to accumulate one large stone. The groundskeepers kept the surrounding garden so well groomed that she couldn't even find a few broken tree branches to make use of. This was turning out to be a problem, as she had scoured her room and had yet to find anything that would prove to be durable enough to withstand the lashings of the eleven and eight year olds.

A sharp knock on the door made her jump slightly. Oh goodness they were early! She rushed over to the door and yanked it open. "Good morning waterbending stud…" she stopped mid sentence when she saw that Zuko was standing in the doorway. Katara smiled gratefully "Hey Zuko." She turned and continued her search, failing rather fantastically at noticing Zuko's stony expression. "Do you think you could give me a hand here?"

Zuko was caught slightly by surprise by Katara's cheerful greeting, but remained determined to make his point. He rigidly walked into Katara's room and opened his mouth to being his monologue, but before he could utter a single syllable Katara cut across him.

"You see I've decided to opt for more target practice for today's lesson, but I don't want to use anything that would break; you know, just incase." Katara crouched onto the floor and peered hopefully under her bed. "But the problem is" she continued "that there doesn't seem to be anything around here that doesn't seem to be valuable or unbreakable." She stood up and faced Zuko, "what do firebenders use when they are busy practicing?" She looked at him expectantly, her brilliant blue eyes shining at him happily.

Upon seeing her eager face, Zuko felt his resolve beginning to crumble "er… well here in the palace there are some large stone figures that we use for practicing." Immediately after saying this Zuko mentally slapped himself for deviating from his plan.

Katara grinned and turned away from him with a thoughtful expression on her face. The stone figures sounded like a good idea, considering they had survived the heavy beatings of firebenders; perhaps she should ask someone at the palace to move one or two of them down to her training grounds…

"But that's not why I'm here" Zuko's words rang across her thoughts.

"Oh?" she turned to face him once again; a light smile graced her face, "well why have you come here then?"

She noticed him straightening his posture and he suddenly seemed to look very solemn. Sometimes he really took his title as Fire Lord much too seriously.

"Here, in the Fire Nation" Zuko began reciting his speech "we have certain norms…" He paused for dramatic effect. "These norms include being respectful of your superiors, not breaking into other people's houses, not stealing from one another, not…"

Katara felt her mind slip back towards her lesson for the day as Zuko carried on ranting about Fire Nation customs.

"Not driving carriages recklessly, not…"

Should she request two or three stone figures?

"Not plagiarizing other people's work, not…"

How big were they anyway?

"Saying please and thank you, offering to help little old ladies cross the street, not…"

Also, how heavy where these things? Maybe they couldn't be moved at all?

"And last but certainly not least, not _sending somebody else to a dinner in your place when the Fire Lord had specifically sent out an invitation for you_!" He emphasized the last few words loudly and punctuated them with a few choice hand gestures.

Dinner? Katara abandoned her thoughts of the stone figures and focused her attention on Zuko… the dinner last night! She had forgotten all about it in the rush of the morning's chores.

"How was dinner last night?" she chirpily asked Zuko.

For a second Zuko could only gulp back at her like a koi fish; she wasn't even listening to him!

"_That's what I was trying to tell you_!" he almost shouted at her.

"Yeh ummm" Katara smiled awkwardly at him as she finally caught on to what he was getting at "about that… I was on my way when I ran into Mai…"

"Yeh I figured as much" Zuko retorted sarcastically. He folded his arms and glared at the wall to his left.

Katara felt a pang of guilt rise in her chest; did Zuko really want to see her that badly? But what about Mai? Did he not want to see her too?

In her usual gentle voice Katara said "Zuko, I didn't mean to stand you up or anything" Katara began wringing her hands nervously "its just that Mai wanted to see you so badly, she said you were good friends and that it had been a long time since you had seen each other." She sighed slightly "I just reckoned you would reschedule the dinner with me or something."

She looked away from him and out the window; it had not occurred to her the previous evening to at least let Zuko know that Mai was coming instead of her. That might've been a good idea.

"I'm really sorry Zuko" she said looking back at him, "I guess I should've let you know." She gave him an apologetic smile.

Zuko glared back at her, but upon seeing her pleading face staring back at him, he felt his heart beginning to melt.

There was a short pause as Zuko's expression softened.

"Well, I suppose you where just trying to do something nice for Mai" he finally said, his annoyance with her no longer audible in his tone "its no problem, we'll reschedule then."

Katara smiled at him gratefully and Zuko felt his heart flutter.

He gave her a small smile in return "so how many of the stone figures where you thinking of using?"

-oOo-

Zuko smiled at no one in particular as he walked towards his throne room. He was so glad that he had a friend like Katara.

His accompanying counsel members looked at each other with slight confusion and alarm as they entered the throne room to wait for the arrival of the Earth Kingdom representatives.

Zuko seated himself behind the low burning flames; maybe he should schedule the dinner with Katara for tomorrow night? He was certain that she would be there this time. And he would make sure that he invited her personally… maybe he would even meet her in her courtyard and escort her to the dinning hall.

"My Lord, they are here." Zuko reluctantly steered his thoughts away from Katara and began to focus on the serious task ahead.

The great doors to the throne room opened and three sturdy figures walked into sight.

"Greetings Fire Lord Zuko!" the burly Earth Kingdom man boomed. The three representatives bowed in respect. Zuko stood and bowed to the three men opposite him.

It was indeed a grand gesture on the Fire Lord's behalf, and the counsel members visibly relaxed when they saw that the Fire Lord was taking the situation at hand very seriously. Zuko seated himself and the meeting began.

"Fire Lord Zuko," the large man said "as our messages preceding us have stated, there is a pressing matter that concerns the Fire Nation very directly." He looked back at the other two group members who nodded earnestly. "A series of firebenders are attacking the Earth Kingdom." The counsel-members of the Fire Nation looked at each other with tense expressions. "At first the attacks started near the coast line, but have steadily spread across the Earth Kingdom and are occurring almost daily." The man paused to clear his throat and then continued, "we have sent forth our elite earthbenders to capture the culprits, but they have proven to be… challenging to catch." He paused again, this time as if choosing his words carefully and finally said in a bitter tone "the Earth King has requested of us that we come seek your counsel, oh Fire Lord, as to how we might apprehend these villains."

Zuko did not respond immediately, yes he knew about the recent attacks. However, he and his advisors where still unsure as to who the attackers where, let alone what their motif was; perhaps some disgruntled citizens where trying to make him look bad. Nonetheless, he had to ensure the newly formed and fragile relations with the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation were not severed.

"Yes I have recently become aware of the attacks" Zuko said confidently "and we can assure you that the Fire Nation stands firmly against these rogues." Zuko glanced quickly at his advisors before continuing "I also personally thank you and the Earth King for coming to me first and not simply concluding that his was an attack orchestrated by the Fire Nation. We are indebted to your loyalty."

The three men, however, showed no emotions and their facial expressions where unreadable.

"To show our gratitude to you and your king," Zuko continued "the Fire Nation shall dispatch a number of our best trackers and firebenders to hunt down these outlaws." The three men looked skeptical. Zuko noticed this; maybe they thought he was trying to start another war? "Of course these delegates will strictly speaking be under your capable command and leadership" Zuko hastily added.

The three men standing before him turned to each other and began conversing in hushed tones. After a few minutes they seemed to have reached some agreement. However, the spokesman of the group turned and faced Zuko once again, "Fire Lord Zuko, we request that you give us some time to consider your proposal."

Zuko sighed inwardly; he had really hoped that they would conclude this meeting early for once. Nonetheless, Zuko stood and bowed to the small group a second time.

"Most certainly, my advisors will gladly escort you to a venue where you can conference" he said as he motioned towards his advisors. A few of the advisors nodded and slowly the great hall emptied, leaving only Zuko with his thoughts. Now what? Zuko suddenly felt very tired. He sighed. Sometimes he wished that he could just leave the palace and go on holiday like regular people did and not have to care about his job until he got back. Oh well, one can dream.

Zuko got up and walked to the backdoor nearest to him. After one last glance of the throne room, he exited and automatically started walking at a sluggish pace to his usual balcony to watch Katara's waterbending session.

At least he had a dinner with her in the not too distant future to look forward to, he thought placidly.

-oOo-

As Zuko neared his destination, he could already begin to hear the faint squeals of delight coming from the fountain area. Whilst shielding his eyes from the bright morning sun, he stepped outside onto the balcony and allowed himself to momentarily forget about all that plagued his mind. Zuko smiled inwardly as he stood from his vantage point, ready to enjoy the debacle that was about to ensue from down bellow. He really didn't know what he had done in his free time before this new source of entertainment had presented itself.

While Zuko watched the carefree children enjoying their morning activities, time seemed to stand still, and nothing more in the world mattered or even existed except for him, these children, and Katara.

Katara… Zuko always felt his heart skip a beat when he heard her name.

Zuko shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he continued to watch the fountain fiasco; he watched intently as each child approached his or her target and sniggered rather audibly as Katara nimbly ducked out of the way almost every time despite her standing as far away from the fountain as possible. Now she was demonstrating the actions that the students where supposed to be doing. Zuko directed his attention entirely at Katara. He loved to watch and marvel at her graceful movements as the clear water swirled around her beautiful physique, her lovely breasts slowly rising and falling as she inhaled and exhaled through her movements….

Hang on, her lovely breasts?

Friends don't think about friend's boobs!

Zuko instantly averted his eyes and slammed himself against the wall of the palace as if this newest epiphany would prompt Katara to read his mind and suddenly turn around and notice him. He hastily moved back inside.

What the hell? What was that all about? Calm down, he told himself, just try to think about something else…

A vivid picture of a rather scantly dressed Katara popped into his head. Argh! Again, what the hell!? What was wrong with him?

Zuko thrust his head into his hands, what was going on? He inhaled deeply, and looked at his feet, he must try harder!

He frantically searched his memories to find something to distract his mind, and for a moment felt like he was succeeding when he began to think of his trip with Aang to find the source of firebending.

Yes, it worked!

But then Katara, wearing a very revealing dress, pushed these thoughts away and teasing smiled at him. What the… again!? How was this happening? Zuko felt oddly desperate, why was he feeling so weird? Why could he not control his thoughts and emotions? What was going on with him?

Then a small voice inside his head spoke up, you like her…

Zuko looked up at the empty wall opposite him; no wait that couldn't be right. He looked up and down the passage way to ensure that it was deserted before unceremoniously plunking himself down on the floor. This was so inconvenient.

When was the last time that he had liked a girl? Well his last romance, or so to speak, was with Mai, and that had not gone so well in the end. And then the only other female that he could truly say he loved was his mother, and well… things also seemed to turn out for the worst there. Perhaps it was a bit too soon to tell, but Zuko could definitely see a pattern beginning to form.

Besides, Katara was a friend of his, not to mention the Avatar's ex-girlfriend. And what if Aang still had remote feelings for her? Dating Katara would definitely upset Aang then, and he most certainly did not want to cause friction between himself and the Avatar for whatever reason. Therefore, for the above mentioned reasons, he could not act on his feelings for Katara… no matter how badly he wanted to.

But deep down Zuko knew that he was lying to himself.

Zuko exhaled in frustration. For some reason he felt like he would much rather go and sit through a thousand meetings with the Earth Kingdom representatives than confront his feelings right now.

What now?

Maybe he should try to forget about it entirely. Yes! He would suppress his feelings and ignore them until they eventually went away. The he would continue with his life as if nothing had ever happened… which it won't!

Even in his head it sounded like a stupid idea.

Most probably, his hidden feelings would just keep accumulating and eventually just come pouring out in a very destructive manner.

Somehow he would just have to learn to cope. But right now he would just have to accept things as they are so that he can move on. Maybe admitting his feelings out loud might help…

"I like Katara" he stated matter-of-factly.

Zuko suddenly felt something beginning to swell in his chest. He likes Katara!

"I like Katara!" he said with more gusto.

For an unknown reason to him, simply by saying his thoughts out loud made them ok. He had feelings for someone! And not just anyone; a beautiful, exotic, blue-eyed waterbender who was scheduled to have dinner with him in the very near future!

All his ponderings and doubts from seconds before where forgotten. Liking Katara suddenly seemed to be as natural as breathing. So what if he decided to have another girlfriend? Katara was different. She was loving and nurturing and would never abandon him! Perhaps this was a bit more serendipitous than he realized. Every fiber of his being was screaming go_ for it!_

Zuko decided then and there that he would make an effort to see Katara more often. He would be charming, suave, a perfect gentleman, and he would woo her and then he would make her fall in love with him. It was the perfect plan!

Zuko jumped up from his spot on the floor. He would have to speak to the chef himself if this was to be a memorable dinner. Zuko practically skipped down the passage, he had never felt so excited before!

-oOo-

Things where going rather well for her lately, Mai decided. Not only had she convinced Katara to give up her place to have dinner with Zuko, but she had also managed to slip Zuko a few subtle but forceful hints about who he should take as his date to his next birthday party. Sure he had taken off rather quickly, but still, her efforts would not prove to be in vain. It would only be a matter of time before a servant would be sent to her house with a formal invitation, requesting her presence as the Fire Lord's date. A smile almost managed to make its way onto her face.

As Mai walked down the main street of town, filled with various stalls and shops, she gazed nonchalantly at the goods for sale. There where marvelous colorful clothes and exotic fruits on display as well as foreign pets and animals; but to Mai, these served only as a temporary distraction at the very best because, after all, everything was so plain and dull. There was nothing here that she needed, in fact there was nothing that she even wanted, but being at home the whole day was about to drive her to tears of boredom, so instead she decided to take a walk.

After strolling backwards and forwards for what felt like an eternity, Mai felt like she had seen everything worth seeing and decided to perhaps go back home and find something else to amuse her. As she started heading back home, a faint voice caught her attention "… what Zuko said anyways."

Immediately Mai stopped and turned to find the source of the voice. She quickly noticed a girl in a palace uniform with a ridiculous purple headband on. Mai sneered at the palace servant, what would she know anyway? As Mai turned to leave, she heard the girl say something that caused her great distress.

"I heard him say so myself; Zuko admitted out loud that he likes the waterbender. I heard him say it when he was sitting in a passage in the western wing"

Mai felt her heart stop, that little bitch!

Then her heart started pounding at a furious rate, she would put a stop to this no matter what!

-oOo-

Katara signed deeply. The sun was busy setting on hard day's worth of training and she honestly felt like her pupils where getting better. Perhaps they might be able to hit their target on the first try next lesson.

Katara sat on the bench in the warm glow of the setting sun underneath the giant tree. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to soak up as much of its fading warmth as she could.

"Hello Katara"

Mai's voice startled Katara as she flicked open her eyes, how did she manage to move so silently?

"May I sit down?" Mai asked motioning at a spot next to Katara.

"Of course" Katara replied, wondering why Mai was asking her so laboriously.

Mai took her seat next to Katara. A moment of uncomfortable silence ensued.

"So how was your dinner last night?" Katara asked Mai in an attempt to get the conversation going.

"Oh just lovely thank you" Mai replied in her impassive tone. Katara waited for Mai to say something else, but Mai remained stubbornly silent. Katara, beginning to feel somewhat awkward around this girl, started to think of an excuse to leave when Mai spoke up "you know there is something that worries me Katara."

Katara noticed that Mai seemed to be considering her words very carefully before speaking. Confused by her actions, Katara looked at Mai in a calculating manner "what's wrong Mai?"

"Its Zuko" Mai said in her emotionless voice "he has developed feelings for you."

"What!?" Katara almost fell off her seat, did she hear Mai correctly?

"It's true!" Mai said turning to Katara "it is exactly as I feared!" Katara was not quite sure what Mai meant by that, and she was not sure if she was meant to feel insulted or not.

Mai got up and walked a few steps away from Katara. With her back to Katara she continued "Zuko is under a lot of stress Katara, I have told you this before." Mai paused dramatically and folded her arms "now he has become attached to you. Do you know what the implications are for you?"

Katara shook her head, despite Mai not being able to see her.

"It means that his emotional well-being will become your responsibility. Think about it Katara, his happiness, sadness, love, anger, it will all be dependant on you." Mai turned to face Katara and still in her inexpressive tone of voice continued "do you realize the enormity of what I am telling you Katara? His performance as Fire Lord will be directly dependant on you."

Katara started to feel very uneasy about what Mai was saying. Mai returned to her seat next to Katara.

"Katara, I am telling you this as your friend, Zuko functions better when he is completely in control, no relationship will ever be able to give him that." She cast her eyes to the ground "Zuko's role as the Fire Lord is vitally important to the peace of this world, do you want to be the one who is responsible for breaking it up?"

Katara too cast her eyes to the ground, why was Mai telling her all this? Was what she was saying really true? Even so, Katara felt weary of the idea that Zuko had feelings for her, what if she had feelings for him too? What if she didn't?

"I will not stop you if you wish to be with Zuko" Mai said unexpectedly, Katara looked back at Mai, again feeling confusion because of this girl.

Mai stood up and slowly started to head for the archway, "but please do bear in mind why Zuko and I are no longer together." Mai then disappeared through the doorway leaving Katara with a sickening lump in her stomach.

Zuko has feelings for her? But she had always thought of them as friends and nothing more; where did he get such a notation in the first place? And did Mai really leave Zuko for the reasons she said? She always thought that they had just drifted apart.

Katara sighed again to try and clear her head. If Mai was telling the truth, then it would certainly be better for them to just stay friends, and if they couldn't be friends… then maybe it was time for her to go back home.

Katara lay down on the bench, she missed her family dearly and her father and Gran Gran had yet to return even one of her letters to them. But on the other hand, Sokka had not yet joined up with her and she had really grown to enjoy living in the palace. She also loved her pupils and so badly wanted to see them grow as strong and capable waterbenders. Why did life have to be so complicated?

Katara stared up into the leaves of the tree which where just visible in the fading light. Perhaps a nice warm bath and a good night's sleep will help her decide on what to do.

-oOo-

"I AM NOT LOST!" Sokka shrieked for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Why would Aang and Toph not get it into their heads that he never got lost, he was merely, er, taking the scenic route and exploring other landscapes that didn't happen to be on the exact route that they had initially planned on…. Oh goodness they where so lost.

"Well let's at least find somewhere to sleep then, Appa is tired from flying all day and I'm getting kinda hungry" Aang suggested.

The trio where soaring high in the sky on Appa, but the sun had set over an hour ago and a biting chill had settled itself in the night air.

"Ok fine" Sokka said rolling his eyes but at the same time feeling somewhat glad that Aang had finally made the suggestion.

Sokka peered over the edge of the bison's saddle. The land below was dark with no distinctive landmarks visible, only a small set of lights could be seen amongst all the blackness.

"Let's land near there" Sokka eagerly said pointing at the lights "it looks like some kind of farm house might be there."

"Ok" Aang replied in a deflated and tired tone. He began steering Appa down towards the ground.

Once having landed, the three travelers made their way towards the lights. As they drew closer, they noticed a sign hanging from a nearby post. "The Guitar Inn" Sokka read out loud "Hmmm…" He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the sign seemed familiar to him. But what?

Looking past the sign post, he could see a charming little house with a neat surrounding garden and a cobbled pathway leading up to the door. The doorway of the inn stood open, the lights from within illuminating the pathway.

"Well this place seems nice enough" Toph said, and continued walking past Sokka and into the house. Aang looked at Sokka who shrugged. Both then followed Toph. Once inside, a variety of delicious smells wafted around them. "Hmmmm" Sokka smiled goofily "fooood." He looked around. A few other travelers where seated inside drinking various beverages and indulging in a variety of dishes. Somewhere in one of the corners a musician was strumming a recognizable tune.

"Well I think our worries for the evening are solved" Aang said with obvious enthusiasm returning in his voice "let's go ask the inn keeper about a place for us and Appa to stay for the night."

The two men went to the front desk while Toph went to find a table.

"Perhaps we might even find someone who knows about the panda here!" Aang thought out loud. Sokka nodded in agreement.

The two reached the front desk and rang for the inn keeper's attention. The guitar music in the corner stopped abruptly and a well dressed man began to make his way through the crowd.

Sokka took the opportunity to have a better look around. He turned his back to the desk and surveyed the people around him. The other guests in the room all seemed to be rather relaxed and where all chatting merrily and drinking to each other's health. Some of them where already half way to becoming totally sloshed. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood and surprisingly, seemed to know each other rather well. A couple of the guests had already noticed the Avatar's presence and where nudging their friends and making visible head gestures.

"Hello there travelers and welcome to the Guitar Inn" Sokka froze. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising, he knew that voice! "My name is Chong; I am the owner of this fine establishment."

Sokka spun around as if a scorpion bee had stung him and pointed an accusing finger at the man; "_You!_" he said scathingly. A very clear image of caves and badgermoles flashed before his eyes, now he knew why that sign post and music had all seemed so familiar.

"Hey Arrow-Head Dude!" the man said as he recognized Aang and threw his arms open in a welcoming manner. "Great to see you have come across my new home!"

"Hey Chong!" Aang greeted him in his usual cheerful manner "it's a lovely home you have here." Chong smiled at Aang in appreciation "thanks very much Arrow-Head Dude. The place was a mess when we got it, but the missus and I have been working hard to get it looking good like this ya know." Aang grinned back at him.

"Hold up!" Sokka interjected "I thought you said you where nomads?"

Chong looked at Sokka and smiled even more broadly and said in his standard aloof tone "well you are correct, we where nomads when we last met, but you see when little Sharma was born we decided that it would be best to settle down for a while."

"You have a daughter?" Aang said excitedly "Wow that's fantastic! Congratulations"

"Hey thanks man!" Chong said "And because you're friends of ours and all, I'll let you guys sleep the first night here free."

"Wow, that's very generous of you Chong, thanks."

"Don't mention it. Everybody would get along with the world if they just got enough sleep you know."

"Erm sure." Aang replied awkwardly "do you also have a place where my bison Appa could stay?"

"Sure, just put him out back. There is a big open field where he could sleep in." Chong said

"Thanks Chong" Aand said once again with a big smile on his face. "Yeh, thanks" Sokka also replied, but with far less enthusiasm than Aang.

"Oh and one more thing" Chong said as the two of them where about to turn and leave. "What?" Sokka asked flatly. Chong leaned forward and gestured for Sokka to lean in closer. Sokka obliged.

"Well done for defeating the Fire Lord, Avatar!" Chong audibly whispered and gave Sokka a 'thumbs up'. Sokka slapped his hand against his forehead and followed Aang to where Toph was sitting, muttering obscenities under his breath.

-oOo-

Author's Note: I am so terribly sorry that this chapter took so long! A very unfortunate series of events has prevented me from posting that range from losing flash drives to computers (yes more than one) bombing to trying to recapture lost data *sigh* anyways, my chapter is finally up! I'll try to be quicker next time. Enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Seven

How To Catch A Girl

The first beams of the morning sunlight shone radiantly on Zuko's closed curtains. Behind them, Zuko lay on his bed, grinning like an overindulged cat at the ceiling. Today was the day that he would set his plan into action!

He had barely slept the previous night as he could hardly contain his nervous excitement. So instead he lay awake, concocting cunning plans as to how he would approach Katara and make his intentions known. In the small hours of the morning Zuko had already decided on a few fail-proof plans… or at least he considered them to be so.

Zuko turned his head towards his windows. The curtains obscured his view of the world outside, but judging by the warm energy beginning to ensue through his veins, he could tell that the sun had begun to illuminate the sky. He could begin.

Without much effort, Zuko got up and was about to get dressed when the first dilemma of the day presented itself – what was he going to wear? As the Fire Lord, he could honestly not say that he encountered this type of problem on a regular basis. He had a small mountain of clothing for all occasions at his disposal, but he was quite certain that he didn't have anything that was specifically designed for this kind of situation. Oh well, he had handled worse problems before…

But for some reason Zuko could just not find anything that looked good enough for his highly important mission. Why did everything in his wardrobe look so overly formal and military-ish? And why was everything red? It wasn't even his favourite colour!

Eventually, after a good hour of internal debating and cross-interrogation of servants on how various outfits made him look, Zuko finally decided to go with a neat outfit that, in his opinion, made him look incredibly dashing, powerful, sincere, mysterious, cool, and yet not too over stated. The outfit that he had chosen consisted of his best (red) shirt with a tailored, fitted long black coat with silver accents. He had then chosen plain black pants and his favourite curly-toed shoes to finish off the ensemble.

After giving himself one last satisfied glance in the mirror, Zuko squared his shoulders and stood tall; he confidently marched out of his room and towards Katara's quarters.

-oOo-

Katara sleepily rolled over in her comfortable bed. She was glad that her students would only be coming in for a short session later that afternoon. For once she could actually sleep in. Her eyelids were heavy and her bed was so nice and warm... she could feel herself drifting off to sleep again, when a very loud and sudden knocking noise brought her back to consciousness.

Grumbling under her breath, she lifted her head and glared at the source of the noise: somebody was knocking at the door.

Perhaps if she just ignored it, it would go away. Katara grabbed one of the pillows lying next to her and placed it, not too gently, over her head and secured it with her left arm.

Ah, that was better.

The knocking noise stopped. Silence.

Smiling slightly, Katara sighed deeply and moved the pillow off her head. She could feel herself falling asleep again when,

"KATARA! WAKEY, WAKEY!"

Hmmm? Katara slowly opened her eyes and rolled over onto her back. That voice sounded like Zuko's. She sluggishly sat up and rubbed her eyes, what time was it?

More knocking sounds came from the door. "Coming" Katara managed to call out in between yawns. With a huge amount of effort, she got out of bed and put on her gown. With laboured steps, she made her way to the door. As she passed her mirror, she paused to make herself look presentable. Her hair stood up at odd angles and her eyes still had a few traces of sleep in them. She bended some nearby water and rinsed off her face. Her hair, she decided, she would deal with later.

She continued on her way to the door.

"Hello" Katara drowsily greeted Zuko as she opened the door.

"Morning Katara" Zuko greeted her with an enormous grin on his face "I hope you slept well last night."

"Hmm? Yes, thanks I did." Katara blinked a few times and stared at Zuko; he looked different. He also smelt different. Was he wearing cologne?

"You look... nice today" Katara remarked while looking Zuko up and down with a sleepy stare.

Zuko positively beamed at Katara "I was hoping you would join me for breakfast in this morning" he said informatively.

For a few seconds Katara stood blinking at Zuko, still trying desperately to wake up properly.

She yawned one last time "yeh sure, I'll go get dressed." She closed her door leaving Zuko to wait patiently on her doorstep.

-oOo-

"More bacon for you, Katara?" Zuko leaned towards Katara with a heavily loaded tray of crispy bacon while still grinning like a mad man.

"No thanks Zuko."

"What about some more egg? Toast? Cereal?"

"Seriously Zuko, thank you but I really am quite full now."

"Well how about some more juice then?" Zuko eagerly leaned across the table and grabbed the silver pitcher before the nearby servant could even motion towards it.

"Zuko really I'm..." Katara sighed in defeat "you know what sure, juice would be great thanks" she held up her glass and Zuko, feeling absolutely delighted, poured her some mango juice.

As Katara sat quietly drinking her juice; Zuko's mind raced to find more topics of discussion that they had not already covered. There were none that he could think of on the spot, so he went with the decided contingency plan.

"Did I mention how lovely you look today?" Zuko smiled at her, waiting for her obvious positive response.

Katara put down her glass, "yes thank you, you did; three times this morning already."

"Well I obviously mean it then" Zuko quickly said trying very hard not to blush at this very potentially embarrassing moment "I honestly do think you look lovely today." He leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. He offered Katara an apologetic smile.

"And that's the fourth time you've said it" Katara told him teasingly. She stood up and reached towards his forehead. Zuko leaned forward, he let her place her delicate hand on his forehead. She then jokingly asked him "are you feeling well?"

Zuko closed his eyes as he felt her cool hand touch his forehead, savouring the feeling of their skin making contact. He felt goosebumps rising on his neck and arms as he smelt her sweet breath near his face. He was in heaven!

He opened his eyes and looked at Katara.

She gazed back at him, and for a few precious seconds, Zuko and Katara stared into each other's eyes, both seemingly mesmerised by every detail of the other's face. Zuko could not believe his luck, this was the moment!

"Katara" he gently said while still staring deeply into her eyes. She smiled softly at him. Zuko took a deep breath, ok here goes...

But suddenly, before he could say anything, Katara's expression changed. She quickly withdrew her hand and her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.

"_Well that was a delicious breakfast, thank you and oh, would you look at the time I should be going_!" Katara hastily blurted out while not daring to look Zuko in the eye.

As she stumbled past her own chair, Zuko was barely able to react to her sudden outburst.

"Huh? What? Wait! I'll walk with you"

"_No no really its ok I must be off_." Katara quickly said.

"But wait!"

Katara was now walking at full speed towards the nearest exit.

Zuko only realised at this point that he was still seated and not running after Katara; so he did just that.

"Katara wait!" Zuko gasped as he leapt from his seat and raced towards Katara. He caught up with her just as she was about to leave the room. "At least join me for lunch this afternoon then" Zuko said pleadingly.

"_Ok yeh sure_" Katara said as quickly as she could while looking anywhere but at him.

Zuko then proceeded to watch with great confusion as Katara speeded off down the passageway.

What was that all about?

He wasn't sure.

Perhaps he had said something wrong? Or maybe he had done something to offend her?

Zuko walked back to his seat and sat down thoughtfully. Maybe the universe was just messing with him and was making sure that nothing good in life ever came easily to him.

Out of those three possibilities, the third seemed the most likely.

Zuko exhaled slowly, he slumped further down into his chair in a very un-Fire Lordly manner and began massaging his left temple. He nonchalantly looked around the dinning hall. The great hall, like the scribe's room, was one of the few rooms in the palace that wasn't adorned in the usual red colours. It was relatively bare, save the large, polished dining table in the centre of the room and a few tapestries that hung decoratively on one of the walls. The most redeeming feature of the room was the entire eastern wall that was made up of massive arching windows that looked out onto a beautiful floral garden and allowed for plenty of sunlight to stream in to the hall. In the centre of the wall was a large double doorway. It was open this morning, allowing the fresh air of the garden into the room.

Zuko glared at the beautiful scenery as if it were somehow responsible for the way Katara had reacted. He could not have asked for a more perfect day to try and ask a girl out, the sun shone brightly, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and everything was so fragrant. So why, oh why had he somehow managed to screw everything up?

He took one last look at Katara's empty seat next to him before getting up and also vacating the room. Oh well, at least he would be seeing her at lunch time. This thought calmed him a bit, the fact that she didn't say no to seeing him again. Perhaps things weren't quiet as bad as he felt they were.

Zuko then absentmindedly strolled off to his first appointment of the day, pondering what his next strategy would be to woo Katara.

-oOo-

A few days later, Katara found herself watching half heartedly as her proud students each took turns to demonstrate to her how their bending and aiming had improved. Their bending skills were still nothing to write home about, but based on their sheer determination, Katara was sure that they would be brilliant someday.

Right now though, all that Katara could think about was Zuko's weird and strange behaviour towards her over the past few days. Breakfast a few mornings ago had been, well, interesting alright; and ever since then she had been seeing far more of Zuko than what she considered to be normal. Every morning since then, he had appeared at goodness knows what time on her doorstep and had insisted that they go have breakfast together. He also did the same at lunchtimes and suppertimes. Did he not have very important Fire Lord business or something to attend to?

During these meal times he would sit rather close to her and would engage her in conversation about how she was doing, what she had been up to since he last saw her a few hours ago, and how she was enjoying palace life and so on and so forth. Then he would proceed to ask her if she needed anything and practically fly off his seat to assist her when she did actually want something.

Katara sighed inwardly. A few days ago, she had considered Mai's little speech about Zuko liking her to be nothing but pure absurdity, but ever since last night there was no doubt in Katara's mind that Zuko definitely felt something for her.

*Flashback*

It had all started off innocently enough she thought, Zuko had invited her to what he called 'a very special dinner' with him and he had insisted that she dress up for the occasion. Zuko had told her that the dinner would be 'memorable' and she could not help but suspect that something significant was going to happen.

As was the custom lately, Zuko had arrived at her doorstep wearing another one of his smart outfits and had escorted her to a smaller and more private dinning area. Upon arrival, a host of familiar flavours had wafted through the doorway. To her delight, she saw that the table in front of her was laden with all types of Water Nation foods. From seal jerky to sea prunes, it was all there!

Zuko, grinning like an idiot, had smartly pulled out a chair for her and then once she was seated, had swiftly sat down right next to her. She had noticed him eyeing the food suspiciously before turning to her and telling her, with a smiling face, to 'dig in.' So she did.

Everything was so delicious! The kitchen staff must have gone through days of planning to get the menu organised. All the while she ate; Zuko had kept on talking, not touching the plate of sea prunes that he had dished for himself. He had started off by describing how much he enjoyed her company and how pleased he was that she was enjoying being here... more specifically being here with him.

At that point she had felt her heart skip a beat. Zuko had leaned closer and looked deep into her eyes. Her heart started pumping. She had put down her eating utensils and stared back at Zuko. She felt an incredible excitement beginning to grow in her.

"Katara, I want to ask you something" he had told her.

"Yes?" Her heart had felt like it was about to escape from her chest. What was he about to ask her? She could've guessed... It was all so exciting!

But then suddenly Mai's face had popped into her head.

And like always, Katara had felt panic rise in her chest.

"Katara, I was wondering if you'd li..."

"Zuko you haven't even touched your sea prunes!" she had cut across him.

She grabbed his spoon and dished a generous portion of the pungent food onto it. She then proceeded to shove the spoon into Zuko's gapping mouth.

The reaction was instantaneous; Zuko's eyes began watering as he struggled to swallow the salty mouthful, which then was followed by a fit of coughing and some slight gagging. He held up his hand to motion that he would be right back and then power walked out of the room.

Feeling guilty for just throwing food down Zuko's throat, she had decided to wait for him to come back and apologise to him before politely excusing herself. But after a while, he still had not returned. She had worried about him for a few moments but then dismissed her worries when a servant had entered the room and told her that the Fire Lord was called to an unexpected meeting.

She then continued her dinner alone, wondering whether she had done the right thing and whether she had actually wanted hear what Zuko was going to ask her after all.

*End Flashback*

A shrill scream brought her thoughts back to the present.

"Shukra stop it!" Nia Jing shrieked at her brother, but the little boy merely danced around the fountain and continued shooting water at his sister.

"Aaargh!" the little girl mimicked her brother's actions and retaliated. Kuo laughed at the two eight year olds and bended water at both of them simultaneously. A three-way water fight had broken out, it was every man, woman and child for themselves!

"_Alright that's enough everybody_!" Katara called over the noise, but to no avail. The children continued to bend water backwards and forth, unaware of their teacher's shouted instructions.

"_Ok everybody, I think that's enough now_!" Katara yelled once again, but she was only answered by a stray splash of water to the face.

Argh!

She furiously bent the water off her face. Why the little... how dare they!

Katara forcefully breathed in and out. Calm down Katara, they are just a bunch of children having some fun, nobody is getting hurt. Just stay calm; there is no need to get upset...

A second stream of water was sent to Katara's face.

Oo that does it!

An evil smile formed on her lips; she had been hoping to do this... she lifted her arms and summoned a small tidal wave out of the fountain and onto her pupils.

A second set of shrill screams met her ears and Katara, unable to contain herself, packed up laughing on the spot.

Once all the grumbling and moaning had stopped, Katara dried off her students and bid them farewell.

At least those kinds of problems were easy to take care of.

Once all her students had gone, Katara walked back into her room, and unceremoniously threw herself onto her bed. She placed her arms behind her head and started to stare a hole into the ceiling. So Zuko likes her... and he was most probably going to ask her out last night.

What would she have said if he did? Katara mentally debated this question for a bit, of course she liked Zuko; she always had so much fun when she was with him. But did she have _those_ kinds of feelings for him? She honestly didn't know.

What would she do if he asked her out next time they met?

Katara closed her eyes and rolled over onto her side; she didn't know the answer to that one either.

-oOo-

It had now officially been two weeks since his primary attempt to ask Katara out.

Zuko found himself growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress that his efforts were making. He had tried the classic romantic dinner, but that had failed very completely. Not to mention how Katara kept on coming up with new and inventive ways on how to bat him at the very moment when he felt like he was about to make his leap of faith. Why did that keep happening?

Perhaps he wasn't trying hard enough, or maybe he just wasn't doing something right. But what was he supposed to do? It's not like he had any training or such on how to handle this kind of situation.

Zuko never liked to admit defeat, but right now it seemed like that just might be a possibility.

Zuko threw a crust of bread in to the pond and watched as the tiny turtleducks pulled it apart and devoured it.

He sat back down on the grass and leaned against the tree. He could still smell the faint scents of jasmine in the air.

Zuko tried to think of a new strategy that he could follow, but with his busy schedule and Katara's classes, it was difficult to find any substantial free time between them except for meal times. This would be so much easier if he had at least had somebody that he could draw knowledge from.

But the only person that he could think of that even remotely fitted that description was his uncle, and Zuko hardly wanted to reminisce about all the embarrassing times that his uncle had shamelessly flirted with various women in front of him.

He shuddered, those types of thoughts where better left forgotten.

But yet again, had his uncle not achieved the desired results? Maybe there was something he could learn from him after all...

Zuko reluctantly began to ponder all his uncle's witnessed romantic endeavours, if that is what they could be called. His uncle had always seemed so calm and in control, he had complemented the lady in question, smiled in his usual stupid cheesy manner, and for some reason they had all fallen for it.

Zuko considered this for a moment; he had done exactly the same thing with Katara... so what was he missing?

This was just ridiculous - what he needed to do was something more drastic!

But what?

He stopped pacing and stared at the tree opposite him as if it would come to life and give him an answer.

The tree did not, but a thought did occur to Zuko - what if he where to watch Katara more closely? Maybe he would hear or notice something that would help his plight!

Zuko turned and immediately started to make his way to his usual balcony when a second and more obvious thought occurred to him – although he would be able to see Katara, he wouldn't be able to hear anything that was being said, and therefore the effort would prove to be pointless.

Hmm...

Zuko looked up at the sky, thinking of some other approach that he could follow.

A slight breeze blew across the courtyard, and Zuko could hear the rustling of the leaves on the tree behind him.

Zuko smiled; he had an idea.

-oOo-

"No, no, no Kuo!" Katara said in an exasperated tone to her student for what felt like the hundredth time. "You lift your right arm like so, and then turn to your left like this" Katara exaggerated the movements in a demonstrative way. The eleven year old tried in vain to mimic her movements. "No, Kuo…" Katara took a deep breath so as not to lose her patience, the last thing that she wanted at this point was to come across as Master Pakku.

She looked at her student and gave him a friendly smile, "try turning more slowly." The boy obliged. "That's better; now just keep practicing while I go help the other two."

Katara turned to watch what her other students where up to, but to her surprise found them simply standing and staring at something near her courtyard doors. She walked over to them and enquired light-heartedly, "what are you two staring at so intently."

The twins turned to face Katara, both of them looked like they had just seen a ghost. "What is it?" Katara asked while bending down to their level, concern evident in her voice.

"Somebody just jumped over the wall and climbed into the tree!" Shukra hastily explained to Katara and pointed at the tree in question. Katara looked in disbelief in the direction that the little boy was pointing. She felt incredibly sceptical of the thought that any intruders would be able to penetrate the heavily guarded walls of the palace, let alone make it all the way into the central gardens. Perhaps they had just seen something that looked like a person.

"It was a burglar!" the little girl chimed in. Obviously she too had mistaken some sort of large bird for a person.

"It was not, it was a thief!" the little boy retorted at his sister.

"Stupid! A thief is a burglar!" Jia Ning angrily informed her brother.

"That's enough you two." Katara said sharply as she stood up, "there will be no bickering in my class, do I make myself clear?"

The twins nodded in embarrassment, but continued to cast mistrustful glances at the big tree.

Katara shook her head knowingly, "come on, I'll show you there is nothing to be worried about. It was probably just an animal or something that you saw."

Katara led her two students to a spot underneath the tree; they all looked up into the dense leaves, "see, there is nothing there." Katara told the eight year olds reassuringly. The twins continued to stare into the tree; perhaps they were not entirely convinced. "Don't worry; even if it was actually a person, I am certainly more than capable of fending off one..." Katara looked up once more into the tree branches and saw it; one unmistakable foot, quickly being drawn up and out of sight.

"_Oh my goodness there really is somebody in the tree_!" Katara cried out "Quickly get behind me!" She instructed her pupils.

"Whoever is up there come done here at once!" Katara called out to the person above her.

Nothing happened.

"I'm warning you, come down now or deal with the consequences!" she ordered a second time.

Still nothing happened.

Katara motioned for Kuo to come stand closer. She then quietly instructed her pupils to follow her actions, they obediently did as they where told.

Carefully a large mass of water was drawn out of the fountain…

-oOo-

Zuko sat very, very still on his tree branch. Why had he been so carless? Why did he try to move to a just as Katara was looking up into the tree?

Ok, relax, maybe she didn't see you.

"_Oh my goodness there really is somebody in the tree!"_

Or maybe she did.

"Whoever is up there come done here at once!"

Shit oh shit oh shit! What was he going to do now!? Zuko hadn't considered this eventuality. Why did he never think such things through?

"I'm warning you, come done now or deal with the consequences!"

Zuko was finding it very hard to not panic, He couldn't come down, he would look an absolute fool! What were his alternatives? Run away? Yes run away! He would quickly make his escape and hope to the high heavens that nobody saw or recognised him.

Zuko skilfully shifted his body weight, waiting for the right moment to make his move; but then suddenly…

"AAARGH!" A mass of the coldest water that he had ever felt crashed down onto him, causing him to lose his balance and plummet down towards the ground.

Ouch!

Zuko lay facedown on the ground.

He didn't dare to move; clinging to the last futile hopes that they just wouldn't recognise him, oh please let them not recognise him!

"Zuko?"

Damn it!

Zuko slowly pushed himself up with his arms. He smiled weakly at Katara and her students. This was so embarrassing; he could even feel his face turning bright red. He got to his feet. What possible explanation could he give that would give him a good reason for being up in the tree? He could think of none.

"Zuko what where you doing up in the tree?" Katara asked him directly.

"Umm, well you see… er, the thing is..." Think, think of something clever to say!

The students behind Katara began sniggering.

Zuko, at that moment, wished wholeheartedly that an earthbender would spring from some nearby bushes and make the earth swallow him.

Katara looked at Zuko expectantly; a smile was fighting its way onto her lips.

The students' sniggers grew louder, Zuko looked at them, maybe this would be easier if it were just him and Katara.

"Can we perhaps have some privacy?" Zuko asked the students. The three children looked at each other; and then stood closer.

Fan-freaking-tastic!

Zuko decided that it would be best to just tell the truth… or a version thereof.

"Katara, the reason that I was in that tree was because… because I wanted to ask you out." Zuko felt his heart beginning to pound.

"From up in the tree?" Katara folded her arms and looked at him sceptically.

"Yes. I mean no! The thing is… you see" Zuko noticed that Katara was fighting back a fit of laughter. Well it was definitely now or never.

Zuko stood tall and in the most confident voice that he could muster asked "Katara, would you do me the honour of being my girlfriend." His heart furiously hammered in his chest. Oh please, please, pleeeease say yes!

Katara looked at him with slightly widened eyes, she was no longer trying not to laugh, and her expression was much too serious for his liking.

Zuko felt as if his heart had stopped beating, and that a lump of lead had formed in his stomach instead; she was going to say no! Perhaps he should just walk away right now, or maybe he should pretend like this was all some big practical joke...

But then a miracle happened.

Katara burst out into a radiant smile; Zuko felt his heart begin to race again, maybe, just maybe everything would be ok.

"Yes."

Zuko couldn't believe his ears, she said yes!

Without thinking twice he ran up to her and fiercely hugged her. This was the happiest moment of his life!

He let go of her and quickly tried to regain his composure.

"Right, I'll come see you after your class then." Katara blushed scarlett and gave him a small nod.

Zuko curtly nodded at the three children before walking away with as much dignity as he could manage, the laughter of the waterbending students ringing in his ears. Zuko knew that from that day on, his reputation as Fire Lord would forever be ruined amongst these three children.

-oOo-

Author's Note: Hey Diabolical Kitsutora, thanks so much for pointing my where/were mistake, I honestly wouldn't have picked up on it! (how embarrassing)

To the rest of my readers – enjoy.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series**

Chapter Eight

Things Are Looking Up

Today was officially the worst day of her life! That total and absolute little bitch!

Mai viciously threw another one of her daggers at a dummy dressed in blue with a crude plait hanging down its back. She then proceeded to snarl at a nearby passing servant who hastily darted back into the house.

Only hours ago had she heard the outrageous news that the Firelord had started courting his in-house guest. Ever since then she had been skilfully demolishing all trinkets and items that reminded her of Zuko or Katara. The picture of Zuko in her room, the dress he had given her as a gift, the blue vase near the kitchen, the tapestry of the palace gardens, the door leading to the courtyards…

She could just not believe it! All her efforts to drive a wedge between Katara and Zuko had been for naught!

How could this be?

Well if she really had to think about it, then her guess would be that obviously _she _was too dense and stupid to comprehend the subtle efforts that Mia had made to prevent them from getting too emotionally attached to each other. Yes that was probably it; Katara was too thick to understand what Mai had been telling her, and if she had even a few brain cells that weren't totally retarded, then Mai's brilliant scheme would have worked!

However this thought did little to tame Mai's wild temper as, after all, the stupid girl was with Zuko now.

Mai glared over her courtyard wall at the palace. The building no longer looked like the symbol of power that it always had to her. Now all it represented was treachery and betrayal for housing that peasant behind its walls.

Mai was growing increasingly agitated. Her energy was spent but anger still poisoned her mind. Perhaps a change of scenery was in order.

She walked back through the unhinged doorway and past the general state of chaos that was her house. Maybe she should just go on a rampage and kill the bitch and let it be over and done with… Heavens she sounded just like Azula! Well Azula had a good thing going... right up until she went crazy that is Mai thought grimly.

As she passed through her front doorway, the harsh rays of the setting sun stung her eyes. She raised her hand to shield her face. How she hated the sun.

As Mai walked down the main street, she heard a group of people chattering excitedly.

"Yes its true, I heard it myself!"

"The Fire Lord and the Water Tribe girl?"

"My, such an odd pairing"

"I think she is simply lovely, don't you?"

"Yes, why, I saw her only last week when she was browsing through the stalls."

"Do you think we'll get to see them together?"

How infuriating! Those hateful people have absolutely no idea what they are talking about! Mai gritted her teeth and walk past the crowd with her head held high.

As she continued to walk, she heard more people talking about Zuko and Katara. Were their lives so pathetic that they didn't have anything better to gossip about?

As Mai continued her walk all she seemed to hear was "Zuko and Katara", and with every step she took her rage just seemed to peak even further. The very thoughts that she was trying to rid her head of were now audibly dogging her at very corner. She halted her relentless striding; this was doing absolutely nothing to calm her demeanour. Perhaps she should just march right into the palace and confront the two together! Mai let out a frustrated sigh, but where would that get her? She stopped and seated herself down at a conveniently nearby fountain and stared gloomily into the crowds.

Two palace guards talking loudly about something in the palace walked past Mai and headed towards a nearby pub. Oh for goodness sake! Was she to be cursed to listen to everyone babbling on about Zuko and Katara's relationship?

"Hopefully another war isn't looming"

This sentence reached Mai's ears and her attention zoned in on the two guards; another war?

"Well only yesterday a platoon of our finest Firebenders where dispatched and sent off to the Earth Kingdom."

"I heard so." The two men disappeared into the pub.

Mai stared at the seedy pub where the men had disappeared into. Should she follow them? She cast one quick glance up and down the street to see if anyone was watching her before skilfully and silently sneaking in after the guards.

Once inside, a revolting stench of stale beer and smoke attacked her senses. She quickly covered her face in to stop herself from a coughing fit. She quickly located the two men and quietly and stood just within earshot of them.

"Fire Lord Zuko is trying to keep the whole ordeal very hushed up for obvious reasons of course" the one man explained to the other "only the most trustworthy and loyal of the Fire Lord's subordinates, such as myself, were informed of the impending rebel threat."

"Why do you suppose it started? You know; the rogue attacks?"

The older guard shook his head thoughtfully "obviously there are some Fire Nation citizens that disapprove of our new Fire Lord."

The younger man gapped at this statement and the older man, enjoying the attention, continued; "not only are the attacks getting increasingly more destructive, but nobody knows who the mystery leader of the group is."

The two guards sat quietly for a moment, pondering what had just been said. Mai took this as her cue to leave.

Once outside she considered what she had heard inside. So Zuko was dealing with a bit more than he was letting on... why had he never told her? Did Katara know about this? For some reason she highly doubted it.

Mai started heading back to her home, the previous conversation of the two men echoing in her head. She smiled to herself; it would seem that this short walk had done wonders to cool her temper.

-oOo-

As the sun set behind the distant mountain range, Katara could not help but feel completely elated as she sat next to Zuko, holding his hand tightly. How could she have worried so much? Everything was just going so perfectly.

They had spent the morning together opting to enjoy their breakfast outside rather than in, and then they had gone off to do their respective things for the day. Now they were back together again, shyly enjoying their first date with each other.

"I like this" Zuko broke the silence.

Katara smiled shyly at him "me too." She shifted up to sit a little closer to Zuko, and the couple continued to stare at the darkening scenery before them.

The silence between them continued and Zuko took the opportunity to skilfully slink his arm around Katara's shoulders. He heard her sigh softly and his heart skipped a beat as he felt her press up against his side. Oh how wonderful the world was right now!

Zuko turned slightly so that he could see Katara's face. She looked up at him with her shy smile still in place, and they stared at each other for a few seconds as if completely mesmerised by each other. Zuko could not help but notice how incredibly beautiful she looked in his arms. It was just so right.

"I'm really happy to be with you Katara" Zuko said gently.

Katara blushed slightly and broke eye contact with Zuko. But then she looked up at him again, "I'm really happy to be with you too."

Zuko continued to gaze back at her. He wanted her more than he could even describe. He leaned in a little closer to her. Katara didn't back away, which Zuko took as a good sign. He shifted his gaze from her eyes to her lips. He then proceeded to lean in even closer, slowly shutting his eyes as he did so.

His heart was pounding in huge anticipation of their first kiss, he could not wait any longer, he had to do it now! And then out of nowhere, a stray thought occurred to him - would Katara let him kiss her?

His lips touched hers, oh how soft they were.

Zuko hardly dared to breathe, waiting to see what would happen next.

For a split second Katara seemed to hesitate, but then she leaned in even closer to him and kissed him back with surprising passion, hugging him around his waist as she did so. Zuko held her more firmly and he shifted his weight so that he could lie next to her as their tongues danced in each other's mouths.

He stood corrected; _this_ was the happiest moment of his life!

"Fire Lord Zuko?" a voice came from behind them. Both Katara and Zuko jumped. Zuko angrily sat up turned to see who the intruder was. One of the council members was standing near the doorway.

The man bowed stiffly and then addressed the Fire Lord "my lord I would like to converse with you on matters concerning the Earth Kingdom."

The man stepped forward to continue his talk, but Zuko held up his hand and firmly said "we shall discuss it in the morning." The man looked a bit confused and made no attempt to heed Zuko's hint.

"_It can wait_" Zuko said through gritted teeth when he noticed that the councilman wasn't leaving.

"Very well my lord" the man finally said and slowly turned and walked away, an obvious and disapproving scowl evident on his face.

Katara looked on at this scene with a puzzled expression; once the man was gone she sat up again and turned to face Zuko "what was that about?"

Zuko paused for a moment, trying to come up with a decent answer that would not upset Katara. After a moment he simply smiled at Katara "do I need an excuse to want to have my new girlfriend all to myself?" He smirked at her.

Katara blushed and smiled cheekily at Zuko, "no, I suppose you don't." She then snuggled up to Zuko, who lay back with his arms wrapped firmly around her. The two of them then continued to watch as the stars came out, completely happy to simply be in each other's company.

-oOo-

It was getting late. Sokka and Aang were staring hopelessly at the map that was supposed to lead them to the gold-toothed panda. After a very thorough search of the surrounding areas, the group was finally forced to conclude that they had no idea of where to head to next. What made their plight even more difficult was that nobody in any of the neighbouring areas had even heard of pandas, let alone happened to know of any that might be nearby.

Toph had recently begun moaning that the expedition was turning out to be fruitless and that they should turn back and tell old man Higgins that they just could not find the stupid animal. Aang didn't say anything out loud, but found himself leaning more towards Toph's suggestion.

Sokka alone remained stubbornly cheerful and determined to press on.

"Come on you guys! There are still a few towns up ahead, somebody must've heard of a panda spotting from there."

"Oh come on Sokka" Toph retorted irritatedly "we must've been to at least a hundred villages by now. Nobody has even seen so much as a shadow of a panda, let alone know where to find one."

"I have to agree with Toph, Sokka" said Aang calmly "I just don't see how any pandas could be even remotely nearby if nobody has ever seen one in these parts."

Sokka looked at Aang pleadingly "Oh come on! Of course we won't find anything if you guys have that kind of attitude!" Sokka folded his arms defiantly and said matter-of-factly "you know pandas can sense this negativity… that's more likely the reason that we can't find any - they're hiding from us because of all this negative energy!"

"Sokka you just made that up" Aang pointed out.

"No I didn't" Sokka hastily responded and quickly looked away.

"Well regardless of whether Sokka is right or not, I think we should give up panda spotting for today and find a place to camp out for the night" said Toph.

Aang and Sokka looked at each other and nodded.

"Lets fly a little further and see if we can find a village in the area." The trio climbed back onto Appa before taking off.

It wasn't too long before some distant lights caught Aang's eye. "Hey it looks like there is another village up ahead!"

"Great" came Toph's relieved voice "head straight in that direction Twinkle Toes, I think I'm starting to forget the feeling of earth under my feet from all this flying!"

-oOo-

Once Appa had landed and everyone had found suitable accommodation; Aang, Sokka and Toph found a nearby pub and had seated themselves around a table and started plotting their next move. The general consensus was that they move back, much to Sokka's disappointment.

"Well if you guys think that it's a lost cause then I guess that I have no choice but to follow suit" Sokka announced to the group glumly.

"Sokka, it's not like we're being unreasonable here" Aang tried to comfort Sokka "it's just that, we've run out of leads to follow and we have to be realistic here."

Sokka sighed and looked down at the map in front of him in a defeated manner.

"Besides, what is up with you and this relentless searching Sokka?" Toph inquired "I never really pegged you as the extreme animal loving type."

Sokka paused for a moment while collecting his thoughts and then said "it's not that Toph, well I do want to find the panda, but the thing is I miss the old days when we were flying around the world together."

There was a brief silence before Sokka continued, "I mean I know there was a war going on and stuff, but being back at home for so long has made me start to wonder if that's where I want to spend the rest of my life. You see the thing is... I don't know if that's where I want to be anymore. I love my family, but I don't want to hurt their feelings by saying that I don't want to live there anymore."

Aang and Toph looked very serious and somewhat taken aback by Sokka's thoughts.

"By continuing with this whole panda excursion, at least I have a reason not to go back home, I get to travel the world again without anybody being upset with me." Sokka looked away from Aang and Toph and out a nearby window. The group was silent.

Momo began chattering and flew off to a nearby table.

Aang looked at Sokka earnestly "Sokka you know that your family would never get upset with you for wanting something different."

"I know" Sokka replied "I just don't know how to tell them yet."

"Hey don't feel too bad about it" Toph suddenly said nonchalantly "I move away from home all the time, it's never quite as bad as people make it out to be."

"This your lemur?" came a rough voice from behind Toph.

Aang and Sokka turned to find a tall man in his late thirties with bright blonde hair wearing a large cloak. Momo was happily perched on his shoulder.

Aang quickly stood up with an embarrassed smile on his face "Momo no!" He held up his arm for Momo to jump on.

The tall man laughed "don't you worry son, I love animals" he handed Momo back to Aang, "why just a few weeks ago I was spending some time with some pandas and before that I was down south with some.."

"PANDAS!" Sokka practically leapt from his seat and rushed over to the man "WHERE?!"

The man hardly seemed fazed by Sokka's weird antics "well a bit further north in the Earth Kingdom I reckon son."

"The Earth Kingdom?" Sokka repeated. Sokka paused and looked at his map for a moment "but this map specifically says that pandas can be found at the most northern point of the Fire Nation" he waved the map in front of the man's face.

"And have you found any there?" The man inquired.

"Well… no" Sokka admitted.

"That's because you've been using an out dated map" the man explained, and with that he hauled out a newer looking map and gave it to Sokka. "Here, use this." He nodded his head in a friendly manner and then said "now if you don't mind, my eelhound is waiting outside for me, good luck."

The man promptly turned and left.

Sokka stood very still with a ridiculous smile plastered on his face clutching the new map to his chest. Aang just looked confused, but Toph looked thoughtful.

Once Sokka had finished prancing around the room and shrieking about positive energy, he sat down and noticed Toph's sombre expression.

"What's up with you?" He inquired.

"Don't you think that a weird sounding stranger just handing us a map to the pandas is a little odd?"

"Didn't you just hear me preaching about positive energy that has come through for us?" Sokka replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Toph snorted and then pointed out "he didn't even notice that the avatar was here with us!"

"Perhaps he didn't want to sound rude" Aang suggested.

Toph shook her head in disbelief "and why did he only come to our table after we had been talking about pandas? He sat right over there" Toph pointed dramatically "he obviously heard us. Not to mention how that map was so conveniently close at hand." She folded her arms and glared in Sokka's general direction.

"Well do you think he was lying to us Toph?" Aang asked with slight concern in his voice.

Toph glared at the ground "it's hard to say with these wooden floors."

"Well I think he was just a nice guy who helped a few people out" Sokka chirped from his side of the table.

Aang shrugged at Toph and then, realising she couldn't see him said "well do you think we should not follow the map?"

Toph shook her head again "all I'm saying is that we better watch it. Something about that guy just didn't seem right to me." She leaned back in her chair "but hey, who am I to stand in the way of an old man and his gold-toothed panda?"

"To the pandas!" Sokka shrieked triumphantly.

-oOo-

Katara giggled slightly as she fell back onto his bed. Zuko took a moment to take in the scenery - the most beautiful creature that he had ever come across was lying on his bed staring up at him! She was wearing a slightly see-through slivery dress that hung delicately around her figure and her hair was spread across his pillow in an angelic manner. He could not believe his luck!

Zuko gently knelt down next to her and started tenderly kissing her neck; she tilted her head backwards and moaned his name ever so softly.

He moved so that he could lie next to her. Careful not to hurt her, he supported his weight with his elbow while he caressed her hips and butt with his free hand.

As the couple lovingly kissed one another with much passion, Zuko's free hand began to move upwards to caress her breasts. While touching her firm mounds, Zuko's mouth made its way to kiss her shoulders. He then slowly began to pull her dress downwards.

He gently tugged at the fabric that was her dress, and it gave way without much hesitation.

Zuko felt his member harden as the dress was pulled away, revealing her perfect busts. He hungrily began to suck on her one nipple while he eagerly massaged the other. He then licked her nipple playfully and felt himself become even more turned on as he heard her moan with pleasure.

He sat back and began to further remove her dress, revealing a perfectly flat and slightly muscular stomach. He pulled her dress off and let it fall to the floor.

Katara now lay on his bed with nothing on except a pair of naughty lacy panties. He lay down next to Katara again and pulled her on top of him. The two began to kiss with absolute ecstasy.

Suddenly there came a loud knock from the door.

Zuko hastily sat up and grabbed a pillow to cover his bulging groin. He quickly looked to where Katara lay, only to discover that he had just been woken up from very exciting dream.

With much disappointment he called out "I'm coming."

He stood up and opened one of his curtains to let some of the first morning sun beams into his dark room. Zuko then threw on his gown and grumpily walked to the door. What would anybody want him for this early in the morning?

He opened the door to find a timid looking servant boy who was looking up at Zuko with a very nervous expression. "Fire Lord Zuko" the boy quickly bowed down, "Sir the royal planners say that they cannot wait any longer sir; they say that they need your final decision today for the royal party."

The boy did not dare look up at Zuko as he said this as if he where scared that Zuko would firebend at him if he did.

Zuko rubbed his eyes lazily, oh yes his birthday… he had forgotten about that. Crap! He still had to find a date… today! Who on earth could he ask to…?

The obvious thought struck him.

Zuko felt like an absolute idiot; of course the date issue was solved – he had a girlfriend! One that he could proudly show off at his birthday party in a few days time.

Zuko smiled at the scared looking boy "give me a few seconds will you, and then I'll be right with you." Zuko closed the door and walked over to his closet. Things were looking up for him.

-oOo-

Review!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters in the series **

Chapter Nine

Of Festivities and Fire Lords

Katara stared at her cupboard with a look of disdain on her face; she had absolutely nothing to wear! And this time she was sure that she wasn't exaggerating. What does one normally wear to the birthday party of one of the most celebrated Fire Lords in the history of the Fire Nation? And more importantly still, what does the girlfriend of said Fire Lord wear to said party?

Whatever it was, she was sure that she didn't possess it. Damn all her blue clothes!

Katara swung around dramatically, closing her cupboard doors behind her as she did so. What to do, what to do, what to do?

Why did this whole birthday party thing suddenly seem like such a bad idea? She was sure that she was going to make a fool of herself! She could just see it now – all the elegantly dressed people elegantly holding their elegant drinks while elegantly making elegant conversation with other elegant people. Perhaps they would elegantly sip from their elegant drinks whenever it was most elegant to do so.

Then from somewhere a voice would announce "And now presenting Miss Katara of the Southern Water Tribe!"

The elegant people would then turn to see the beautiful golden doors open... and there she would be standing in her normal blue dress looking as un-elegant as a platapusbear in a tutu.

Katara could already feel her cheeks burning scarlet.

The elegant people would stare at her blankly. Who is this girl that is standing next to their Fire Lord? Why didn't she look the part? That's what you get when you allow foreigners into the country, they would say.

The elegant people would then elegantly begin throwing their elegant drinks and pastries at her and elegantly chase her out of the palace.

Ok maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still, if she didn't find something amazing to wear then she would certainly be in for some form of humiliation.

Perhaps she should just tell Zuko that she wasn't up to it this evening? Maybe she should fake some foreign disease that originated in the South Pole and that was highly contagious to all the people of the Fire Nation. Then she certainly would not have to attend the birthday bash. Yes then Zuko would just have to go alone...

Zuko would have to go alone.

Somehow that did not seem like something that Zuko would be too happy about or something that she would be proud of.

Besides, Zuko seemed so keen to have her by his side this evening.

Katara sighed; it was her duty as his new girlfriend to be by his side tonight was it not?

Katara walked over to her dressing table and sat herself down. She looked at herself in the mirror; her big blue eyes stared back at her.

Get over it Katara, she told herself, you have been through way worse than a simple birthday party. She breathed in deeply, she would go to the party; and not only that, she would enjoy it damn it!

Then it was decided; she couldn't let a little thing like shaky nerves spoil Zuko's big day! She would just have to keep her head help high and pray like crazy to the spirits that the royal tailor could perform some sort of magic before the evening.

-oOo-

Zuko slowly opened his eyes.

He felt... different.

His head felt lighter somehow, and he was sure that he could feel a sort of euphoric sensation building in his stomach.

Hmm, that's new.

But what the heck, let's go with it!

He propped himself up with his arm and looked sleepily around his room while contemplating his day ahead. All meetings with his advisors had been cancelled for the day, but despite that there was still a lot to be done before the evening. With a small sigh Zuko got up and dressed for the day.

He then headed towards his throne room without giving his bedroom a second glance.

As he walked along the pretty passages he pondered over the upcoming day. Had he thought of everything that needed to be done from his side and would everything be ready for the evening? Come to think of it, he still needed to finalise his speech that he would be giving the Fire Nation that afternoon. Now how did it go again...?

_Citizens of the Fire Nation_... no that sounded too colonial... _people of the Fire Nation_... yes he liked that...

As Zuko started reciting his speech in his head, he became so immersed in it that he failed to notice that someone was sitting outside the throne room.

"Hello Zuko" said a very tired, droning voice.

Zuko stopped in front of the throne room doors and turned to face the source of the voice. "Mai... what are you doing here?"

Mai glared at Zuko for a second but then looked away and signed "I just came to tell you that I won't be coming to your little thing tonight." She then stood up "I have other plans for the evening." She turned and slowly walked away.

Zuko watched her go until she turned the corner into a dark passageway. Well that was strange.

-oOo-

Yes! If she had not seen it then she would not have believed it. This was most definitely _the_ dress!

Katara stared at her reflection in amazement. She just could not believe the transformation that had taken place! Now she was sure that she would look just as elegant as all the other elegant people... if not more so! And what perfect timing; she only had about an hour left before she was to make her big appearance at Zuko's side.

"Well... you look nice."

Katara glanced passed her reflection to see Mai standing at the doorway to her dressing room.

"That's a nice colour on you" Mai said as her dark eyes pierced Katara's reflection.

"Umm thanks" Katara replied as she turned to face Mai. A moment of silence ensued as both ladies stared at each other, each seeming to be considering her various thoughts.

Eventually Katara broke the silence.

"Are you looking for something Mai?"

Mai snapped her head up as if she had suddenly been brought out of a trance. She calmly replied "oh no Katara."

She glided towards Katara and took both Katara's hands in hers "I just wanted to wish you good luck for the evening."

Katara noticed how unnaturally cold Mai's hands were, as well as how tightly she was gripping with them.

Mai stood in front of Katara and continued to pierce her with her gaze. Katara could not help but feel awkward and wished feverishly that Mai would stop looking at her like that.

To her relief Mai then dropped Katara's hands and began to walk out of the dressing room. As she reached the doorway she looked back and cast a dark smile on the room "well enjoy it." She then walked out of the room, but Katara could swear that just as Mai had left she heard a faint "while you can."

-oOo-

At last it was the evening of the party!

Iroh had been looking forward to it for weeks now. At last he would get to see his beloved nephew again!

He leaned back in his comfy chair, admiring the familiar surroundings of the palace hall. He sincerely hoped that Zuko would hurry up and make his entrance already.

Not only was Iroh incredibly hungry from a long trip from the coast to the palace, but more importantly still, he could just not believe that somebody would do this to him - for some unknown reason someone had made the stupid arrangement to serve champagne (and champagne only) before the Fire Lord's appearance. I mean what the heck?

Iroh glanced wistfully at the buffet tables that were strategically placed all around the room. The tables should by all accounts have been groaning due to all the food that

had been placed upon them. Food that looked so perfectly prepared, food that filled the room with the most delicious aroma, food that was just calling out to him to be eaten.

And in the one corner of the hall (oh happy day!) was an entire station dedicated solely to TEA! Iroh was sure that it Zuko's idea. Unfortunately, due to all the attention that Iroh was receiving from palace officials and old friends, he had been unable to sneak over there and pinch even so much as a small saucer of tea. Why the heck was Zuko taking so long!?

"Announcing his royal highness, Fire Lord Zuko!"

Triumphant music echoed throughout the hall and the great doors opened. Finally!

Iroh sat up immediately and started searching for the nearest waiter.

"And presenting his companion for the evening, Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe!"

What?!

Iroh abandoned all thoughts of his much longed for cup of tea and zoomed in on the entering couple. Zuko and Katara waltzed into the room to massive applause as if they had done it a thousand times before.

Iroh noticed how Zuko and Katara kept on looking at each other and grinning, he noticed how Zuko carefully escorted Katara and pulled out her chair for her, he noticed how the couple stared at each other like puppies and how they held each other's hands under the table.

As the occupants of the room applauded Zuko and Katara, Iroh smiled gleefully at the couple and applauded them as well. Perhaps he had given Zuko too little credit; perhaps he would be having grandchildren after all!

-oOo-

Katara felt her heart flutter as she slowly walked down the stairs to meet Zuko outside the Great Hall doors. It seemed that with every step she took the knot in her stomach seized up even tighter. The anxiety of her big appearance was killing her.

As she approached the bottom of the stairs she saw that Zuko was already there, patiently waiting for her. He was facing the giant doors, seemingly deep in concentration.

"Zuko..." Katara tentatively approached him. Without hesitation Zuko turned around and literally stopped in his tracks.

He gulped audibly.

Zuko stood as if mesmerized by her beauty neither moving nor speaking. For a moment, Katara even wondered if he was breathing.

And then Zuko spoke, in a very strained voice albeit "Katara... wow" he swallowed again and then said with a smile spreading across his face "you look amazing!"

Katara giggled and cast herself a glance in the reflection of the shiny doors; she really did look good even if she had to say so herself.

Instead of her usual blue, and feeling that red was a bit too drastic, she had opted for a wondrous deep purple dress in the end. The fabric of the dress was amazing; it felt just like the water that she so often bended, and to add to it, the material had a silver thread woven into it so it sparkled ever so subtly as she moved. The dress itself was strapless; the bodice clung to her torso while the rest of the dress hung elegantly from her hips down to the floor. Along with the dress, she wore a matching chiffon cloak that hung neatly from her shoulders to the ground. To finish off the ensemble, she was decorated with a pretty diamond necklace and matching hair pins that held her hair in a delicate up-do.

Although she would never know it, Zuko would never forget the breath-taking image that was her that evening.

"Shall we then?" Zuko asked her holding his arm up for her to take. She walked up beside Zuko and linked her arm with his. Zuko also looked rather nice she thought. But then again she always thought that he looked nice in his traditional Fire Lord outfit, as she called it.

Katara breathed in deeply and Zuko signalled the servant near the doors to open them. "Don't be nervous" he whispered into her ear. He squeezed her hand with his free hand and then straightened up and led Katara into the hall to a mass of applauding people.

"Announcing His Royal Highness, Fire Lord Zuko" the servant at the door announced impressively loudly over the applause "and presenting his companion for the evening, Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe!"

Katara had to actively tell herself to breathe and smile as she and Zuko made their way to the opposite end of the hall where their special table had been set. Katara noticed Iroh sitting there clapping very loudly and grinning from ear to ear. However the rest of the hall was a blur, only once they had made their way to their seats did Katara allow herself to look around and take in the scenery of the room.

The great hall looked stunning!

The hall was set with various small tables dotted all around and a big raised wooden floor, presumably for dancing, in the very centre. Servants were busy walking in between the tables offering the guests beverages and small pastries and everybody was beautifully dressed, just like she had imagined. The buffet tables where stationed near the edges of the hall and the food looked divine! Everywhere the eye could see were flowers and fire jugglers and fancy golden decorations. It all just looked magical!

As Katara soaked in the beauty with her eyes, she could not help but overhear a faint but urgent whisper from Iroh "Fire Lord Zuko, we need to talk." Katara turned to look at Zuko who did not say a word but merely nodded. Iroh then immediately sat up straight and called for a nearby waiter to bring him some tea.

Zuko turned to Karata and smiled warmly at her, he squeezed her hand gently under the table "so what do you think?"

"It's beautiful" Katara answered back sincerely. Zuko looked chuffed. "So what happens next?" Katara asked him.

"I tell everyone that they can eat" Zuko replied smugly.

"And he will be doing it soon!" Iroh cut across the table and gave Zuko a meaningful look.

Zuko got the hint and stood up, the hall went silent.

Zuko held up his arms in a welcoming manner "friends; thank you for joining me here this evening, the evening of my twenty fourth birthday!"

People in the audience clapped and some of them even raised their glasses.

"I hope you enjoy the evening with me" Zuko continued "and that you all especially enjoy the food that the kitchen staff worked so hard to prepare" he made a gesture towards the head chef who happened to be standing near the kitchen doors.

"All that I want to say to you is this... enjoy!"

There was a collective cheer from the audience and some people made their way to the nearest buffet tables.

Iroh wasted no time in getting up and rushing off to the buffet table.

Katara looked over at Zuko who just leaned back in his chair and watched the other people filling their plates.

"Do you not want something?" Katara asked Zuko.

Zuko turned to her "I always let my guests help themselves before I do" he explained. "Its what my mother used to do."

"I think that is very thoughtful of you Zuko" said Katara as she took his hand again.

As everybody, including Zuko and Katara had helped themselves; music began to fill the air and people got up to go dance on the raised floor.

Katara looked over at Zuko's plate and saw that he had just about finished his meal, "does the Fire Lord get to dance too?" she asked coyly.

"He does but this Fire Lord in Particular does not dance" Zuko replied in a firm tone while folding his arms.

"We'll see" Katara said with a small sly grin on her face.

"No!" Zuko said as he saw that look.

"Katara no."

She still had that look on her face

"No!"

-oOo-

The party was a total blast! Zuko grinned cheekily as he escorted Katara back to her quarters in the early hours of the morning. Zuko could honestly not remember when last he had had such an awesome time at his own party. He ate with Katara, he chatted with Katara, he _danced_ with Katara (something that had felt very foreign to him) and now he was walking back to her quarters. He wished this night would just last forever.

Once the couple had reached her door, Zuko grabbed Katara around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He held her close and lovingly pressed his lips up against hers. Katara reciprocated and wrapped her arms around his waist. The two of them stood in a passionate embrace, blissfully unaware that they were in plain sight of anybody who should be walking down the corridor.

At last they loosened their grip on one another. Katara looked up at Zuko; she smiled at him before snuggling her head on his chest.

Zuko watched Katara do so, and as she did he felt something welling up inside of him.

Katara must have sensed it as she looked back up at him.

She gave him an encouraging smile and before he could stop himself Zuko had started to say "I..." he stopped himself. Katara looked at him curiously so he thought of something else to say - "I... had a really nice time tonight." Zuko bowed his head and touched her forehead with his.

"Me too" she replied with a tired but satisfied look on her face.

Zuko could not resist staring into Katara's eyes as they stood there. Oh how he wanted to go into her room with her, pull her onto the bed with him and sleep with her in his arms. Nothing would give him greater joy than to wake up with her next to him. But he knew better than that. Honour was not something to be given up on a passionate whim.

"I'll see you in the morning" he finally told her as he gently let go of her. He then turned and walked off once she had gone inside and closed her door.

As Zuko walked back to his room he wondered about what had just happened; what on earth was he about to say to Katara? And why did he feel the sudden need to cover up what he was going to say?

He yawned audibly, he was tired, maybe he would figure it out in the morning.

-oOo-

After a relatively rushed breakfast, Zuko and Iroh went and stood in the garden near the turtleduck pond, out of earshot from anyone around.

"What is it uncle?" Zuko asked Iroh directly "what did you want to speak to me about?"

"I think you know what about Fire Lord Zuko" Iroh replied wisely.

Zuko nodded and looked out onto the garden "it's about the rebellions isn't it?"

"It is" Iroh took a sip of his tea "there have been many attacks in the Earth Kingdom before I left to come here, and more attacks have been reported since."

Zuko looked confidently at his uncle "we have dispatched our best firebenders to track down the culprits."

Iroh merely nodded and took another sip of his tea "I am sure that you are taking every necessary step to stop these rebels; but what concerns me most Zuko is not the actual attacks but rather the erratic nature of these attacks." He paused to take another sip of his tea "the antagonists don't seem to have a particular target and they have not made their motives known nor have they issued any ultimatums. It's like they are just causing mayhem for the sake of causing mayhem."

Zuko considered his uncle's words carefully "so what do you suggest I do uncle?"

Iroh smiled behind his cup of tea, even though he considered Zuko to be an excellent and capable ruler, it was nice to know that he would still ask him for his advice.

"Be on the alert at all times Zuko, and be especially aware of any change in the attack patterns." He gave Zuko a very stern look "I strongly suspect that these attacks are but a decoy and that another nation is in fact the real target"

"Do you really think so uncle?" asked Zuko.

"Zuko" Iroh said in a warning tone.

"Yes uncle?"

Iroh walked over to the edge of the pond "I feel that these attacks are not going to stop soon, I suspect that the worst is yet to come." Iroh turned to face Zuko once more "I would suggest to you that, in order to maintain whatever good relationships we have built with the other nations, you warn the Water Tribes of any possible danger that might be coming their way."

Zuko felt a sudden knot form in his stomach, "do you think that one of the Water Tribes might be the real target?"

Iroh merely shrugged "it is a possibility, like I said to you Zuko; we do not know what these rebels want so therefore it is important for everyone to be aware."

Zuko pondered his uncle's advice in silence; the very thought of telling the Water Tribes that there were firebenders out there that wanted to attack them... again; he might just as well kiss goodbye any possibilities of them even being on speaking terms with the Fire Nation ever again.

And what about Katara?

Zuko faced his uncle and bowed respectfully to him "I shall act upon your advice accordingly uncle."

Iroh bowed back at Zuko and Zuko turned to leave; however Zuko stopped and faced his uncle one last time, "uncle..."

But Iroh just nodded at Zuko and said "don't worry Zuko; I shall not repeat what we have just spoken about to anyone."

Zuko smiled gratefully at his uncle "I'll see you at dinner uncle." Both men then left to go do their respective things for the day.

The gardens where then still for a moment till when, from the shadows, a slim dark figure emerged.

Mai grinned manically to herself, this was all too perfect!

-oOo-

Happy New year to y'all! May it be filled with many more awesome fanfics to come!


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